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MOUNT ULLA — West Rowan brought a reckless evening in for a safe landing Friday night.
The Falcons, playing their third game in four days, overcame a careless and unsteady first quarter to level visiting Concord, 74-46, in a significant SPC boys basketball game.
“This was a very important win after last night,” senior Tim Mauldin said after West (5-0, 7-2 overall) rebounded nicely from Thursday’s draining, four-point loss at North Rowan.
“I don’t know if we still had a little bit of that in the back of our heads, but we came out shaky. he continued.”
The Falcons spotted Concord (2-4, 3-6 overall) an early 8-4 lead, but regrouped behind Mauldin and 6-8 junior Donte Minter. Mauldin, a senior scrapper, scored a game-high 16 points — including 12 in the first half.
Minter added 15 points and increased his career total to a whopping 1,033.
“What I liked,” said West coach Mike Gurley, “was that we stayed with what we were trying to do. We didn’t get rattled by it.”
Concord unleashed its run-and-gun offense and stayed with the Falcons for much of the first quarter.
The visitors led 15-13 after Mike Johnson’s three-point play with 21.1 seconds to go and by 17-16 following Greg Cummings’ fastbreak layup early in the second stanza.
“Run, run run. That’s our game,” said losing coach Foster Parker. “I was hoping we could run them and stay close enough to gain momentum and maybe pull it out in the end.”
The score was tied at 20 when Mauldin buried a crucial 3-pointer from deep in the right corner — providing the Falcons a lead they never relinquished.
“I saw (the defender) back off and just had this instinct,” said Mauldin. “That’s when I pulled the 3. It was a big shot.”
Parker called the basket “the one that took our hearts away from us.”
Moments later, teammate Horatio Everhart converted an equally-clutch trey from the left corner and the Falcons were in control.
Minter (9) and Mauldin (5) combined for 14 second-quarter points as West built a 41-25 halftime advantage.
“We had to make them play our game instead of their game,” said Minter. “They wanted to run up and down the floor. We wanted to set up. We didn’t want another game like (Thursday) with all those turnovers. That’s what hurt us.”
This time it was West doing the hurting, and Parker knew it.
“In the second quarter we started rushing ourselves,” he said.
“We didn’t take our time and started trying to do things that were a little bit out of our reach,” Parker continued. “At the same time West went to their big game, to Donte inside.”
West used that 21-5 spurt to make a U-turn, then cruised to the finish line.
The Falcons twice led by as many as 28 points on last-minute baskets by reserves Michael Johnson and Adam Pritchard.
“It seems like we just kind of figured out how we were going to play and we got it going,” said Gurley.
“We got into a rhythm, got our hands in the passing lanes and made them miss some shots,” he continued. “ We got our break going again. It was fun to see us play like that.”
Particulary for Mauldin, who sat down with Gurley for a heart-to-heart earlier in the day.
“We talked about what I needed to do to help the team,” he said. “And I realized I needed to go hard and really bust it. That’s what I tried to do.”
Said Gurley: “We’re just trying to get Timmy to relax and play the game.
“ I told him, ‘When you were six and seven years old and you started playing this game, you didn’t play it for college scholarships and you didn’t play it to be in a crowded gym,” he continued. “ You played it because you loved it, you wanted to do it.’ And that’s what I told him. Just go out and have fun and play hard.”
On Friday, Mauldin — and his West teammates — did just that.
CONCORD (46) — Cook 10, Peay 9, Smith 7, Cummings 6, Calzado 4, Johnson 3, Tucker 3, Howard 2, Fairley 2.
WEST ROWAN (74)— Mauldin 16, Minter 15, Everhart 12, P.Williams 10, Hairston 8, Pritchard 4, Gaither 2, Avery 2, Trosper 2, Johnson 2, Goodnight 1, Diggs, J.Williams, Barringer.
Concord 15 10 13 8 — 46
West Rowan 15 26 17 16 — 74
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