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The high school basketball notebook ...
Shameeka Wansley is still hurting.
The 5-11 center for West Rowan dislocated her shoulder when she ran into the wall in a loss to Northwest Cabarrus last week. When West showed up at Kannapolis Tuesday night, she was on the bench beside assistant Toni Wheeler in street clothes.
“She told me she could be out for two weeks,” said West coach Angie Waddell. “It could vary. If she does what she is supposed to, she’ll bounce back sooner.”
Waddell likens her senior inside force to teammate Kristen McNeely.
“She might not score a lot but does the little things like rebounding, defense and smart execution.
“It was sad,” Waddell said of Wansley’s injury. “She was on her way to a great game. She had three or four rebounds in two minutes.That was definitely a factor (in the 47-35 loss to the Trojans).
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PIEPERPOWER:It’s been tough going so far for West senior forward Sara Pieper, who has more career points (778 through Thursday) than any current girls player in the county.
Pieper, all-county last season, is averaging 9.6 ppg through West’s first eight games, with only two double-figure games.
Thursday night’s 50-43 overtime loss to West was a downer for Pieper, who played only two minutes or so in the first half after getting two quick fouls, then fouled out on a controversial call in the fourth quarter.
Still, you’d have a hard time convincing South Rowan coach James Greene that Pieper isn’t on her game. She’s had 19 and 15 points in two outings against the Raiders.
“Ah, everybody shoots it against us,” groused Greene.
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ONHISWAY: Tim Mauldin has grown to 6-foot-3 and says he wants to play small college basketball.
West coach Mike Gurley is helping him by letting him handle the ball — mainly out of necessity.
“We’re young in the backcourt,” he said. “If we had a Stephon Marbury or an Omar Cook, we’d put in their hands and get out of the way. But we can’t do that. So Timmy is getting a great education. A lot of people don’t realize it but Timmy is leading us in assists — mainly because he gets the ball to Number 55.”
No. 55 is Donte Minter, the team’s leading scorer with over 23.0 per game.
“When Donte rings one up, he rings one up for Timmy.”
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KANNAPOLIS
Doug Wilson was smiling Tuesday night: not because of his team’s 38-27 loss to West Rowan.
Kesha Johnson is back in the lineup.
The returning all-SPCperformer saw her first action of the season against West, hitting two 3-pointers and finishing with six points. But her injured ankle appeared OK.
“She’s a whole lot better than that,” Wilson said after Johnson’s six-point night. “It’s going to take time to get her legs back. I probably played her more than I should have. But it’s good to have her back.”
Johnson followed up with 17 points and 12 assists in the Wonders’ 61-51 SPC win over Sun Valley on Wednesday.
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SNAPPINGBACK:The Wonders trailed Sun Valley with three minutes left when Johnson’s running mate, Elise Stanback took over the game. Stanback had a 19-point fourth-quarter and a career-high 35 points, pretty amazing numbers for a 5-foot-5 player.
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EAST
Randy Bingham, the East Rowan girls coach, says he is impressed with West freshman Hillary Hampton.
But she was just one of three top-notch freshmen in the recent West-East game.
Bingham has 9th-graders Maggie Rich and Jordan Huffman, both of whom are pushing 6 feet.
Rich, the little sister of senior star Emily, had only two points in a 48-38 loss to West but did grab nine rebounds.
And despite their height, the freshmen don’t mind getting on the floor.
“Maggie has really played well and Jordan has done a super job,” Bingham said. “They’re probably more scrappy than the other players.”
As far as Hampton joining the other two diaper dandies?
“It’s going to be a lot of fun watching them,” Bingham smiled.
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SOUTH
South coach John Davis had praise for two reserve post players, juniors Tre Hornbeak and Joel Patterson, after the Raiders’ recent 62-60 upset win over West.
“Give Hornbeak and Patterson a lot of credit. They came in and did a great job down in the post, sacrificed their bodies taking charges, working hard on the boards. Tre looked like a basketball a couple of times bouncing around out there, but he sacrificed his body and that’s what counts,” said Davis.
The 6-3 Patterson and 6-2 Hornbeak saw action after starting center Maurice Torrence got in early foul trouble.
South trailed by 10 to start the fourth quarter, but Hornbeak scored the first basket of the period and helped fire up the Raiders with his scrappy play. He wound up with three rebounds, two points, a steal and an assist in that quarter, plus a steal earlier in the game.
Patterson contributed four points and two rebounds to the victory.
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JAYVEEJUICE: Jayvee wins and losses don’t always mean a whole lot, because it all depends on which sophomores are playing on the jayvee team and which ones are on the varsity. For example, can you imagine what the West jayvee boys team would be like if it had super sophs Phillip Williams, Jason Williams, Junior Hairston and T.J. Gaither, all of whom are regulars for Mike Gurley’s varsity?
Still, having said all that, it’s hard not to notice how many big wins South’s jayvee boys are rolling up. They blistered Northwest Cabarrus by 30-something on Wednesday. Graham Corriher and Andrew Morgan are usually the leaders for a team coached by Scott Vanderslice. Vanderslice’s son, Mark, played on West’s 1997 state champs.
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GRINANDBEARIT: South girls coach Greene saw the “I’m tired” signals that center Brittany Gaddy and point guard Katie Willett kept flashing at him during Wednesday’s 57-46 loss to Northwest Cabarrus, but he had to ignore them.
“What could I do?” wondered Greene. “I had to have those two out there. They just have to get tough mentally and play through it.”
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BIGBRIT:South’s Brittney Gaddy has already scored 187 points, only 21 fewer than the rest of the Raiders combined.
By the way, the 6-foot-1 Gaddy is referred to as “Big Britt” in Landis, not because she’s from England, but because the team has another Britt. Tiny guard Britt Miller answers to “Little Britt.”
Davie County
OK, Sean Stevens is no longer sneaking up on people. Still, no one seems capable of either stopping him or containing him. Stevens is averaging 25.5 ppg.
The remarkable thing about that number is that Stevens, listed at 5-foot-9, is actually closer to 5-7. But he had 39 points against Salisbury in a recent 105-84 Davie win. He hit 9 of 13 3-pointers in that game, somehow getting off that peculiar little set shot of his in the face of the Hornets’ quick defenders.
“He has a quick release,” explained Davie coach Jim Young. “And he never quits moving without the ball.”
The good news for Young is that Stevens is getting enough help that he doesn’t have to be a one-man gang. Exchange student Eddie Zajmovic, another superb shooter, averages 17.3 ppg and bruiser Dan Sullivan and point guard Jason Hogue also average in double figures for a 6-1 club.
NORTH
North Rowan forward Marcus Lawing laughed when he was told that the latest installment of West-North had somehow managed to live up to all of the hype and advance billing.
“It always does,” said Lawing. “Every time.”
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THEBLOCK: North’s Bryan McCullough’s game-saving block on Donte Minter with 18 seconds left in North’s 60-56 win on Thursday was one for the ages. McCullough explained how he was in the right place at the right time and that luck had nothing to do with it.
“I’ve played against Donte a lot and I’ve never seen Donte spin to his right in the lane,” said McCullough. “He always goes hard left. He went hard left and I was in position and made the play.”
“I thought it was just me down there against Donte,” grinned North point guard Dre Byrd. “Then Donte spun and then I saw Bryan coming for the block.”
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OURYEAR:McCullough said the Cavs may not have held on to Thursday’s win in previous years.
“When we were sophomores and juniors, we didn’t always know what to do in those tight situations,” he said. “But now we’re all seniors. We know what it takes to win games at the end. Seniors step up and make crucial plays.”
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BYRDISTHEWORD:Byrd credited the win over West to confidence and intensity.
“We all felt like we could beat West,” said Byrd. “All we had to do was go out there and play as hard as we could.”
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THET.Y. FACTOR:North’s former manager T.Y. Cole is still leading the cheers for the Cavs. The round mound really gets unwound. He was the main man in getting the crowd energized during Thursday’s wild girls and boys games.
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ROUNDONE:Dan Wales, a North supporter working the scorer’s table, reminded Cav fans not to get too excited about Thursday’s win — not with a trip to Mount Ulla looming Wednesday.
“Ding, ding, ding,” said Wales, doing a decent impression of a bell. “That was just Round One, baby.”
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INCOMPLETE: A long inbounds baseball pass thrown by Cavs’ football quarterback Graham Hosch hit the ceiling for what could have been a disastrous turnover.
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PREMATUREEXCLAMATION: With North leading by six and with less than a minute remaining, Cav fans cheerfully chanted, “Over-rated, over-rated” and “Y’all need Scoot-er” at West players and supporters.
The jeers almost backfired. West nearly pulled off a miracle similar to last season’s 82-81 game in Spencer until McCullough’s huge block.
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WE’VEGOTTAGETBETTER:No coach is ever completely satisfied and North’s Kelly Everhart was no exception
“We just didn’t handle the late-game pressure well at all,” said Everhart. “I was extremely disappointed in our kids in that part of the game and West did a super job to give us so many problems.”
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HOMESWEETHOME: The super-charged environment was borderline hysteria, but Everhart, for one, loved it.
“You can’t get a better atmosphere than what we had tonight,” he said. “If you couldn’t get excited about this one, you’d better check your pulse.”
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SECONDBEST:Anytime North beats West it’s news. In fact, anytime anyone beats West, it’s news. McCullough agreed it was one heck of a win, but still not the best he’s been a part of.
“That would have to be the one over West in the Christmas Tournament last year,” he said. “Because they had Scooter for that one.”
SPC general
SCOUTINGREPORT:Northwest Cabarrus’ respected boys coach Greg McKenzie agrees that West Rowan has one heck of a team, but says the Falcons may get a stiff challenge from not only defending state champ Central Cabarrus, but surprising Sun Valley.
“Sun Valley is really, really good this year,” warned McKenzie, when asked to evaluate the 8-0 Spartans.
But as one area coach quipped, “Hey, McKenzie is 0-9, so everyone must look pretty good to him.”
McKenzie is indeed 0-9, but feels his team is still in the chase for one of the SPC’s five playoff spots. He says Harding is a probable No. 4, but after that it’s wide open. McKenzie may have a case. The Trojans aren’t all that bad and the bottom half of the SPC does not look exceptionally strong at this point, especially with A.L. Brown’s once imposing roster reduced by injury and disciplinary actions.
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