Top-seeded North Rowan beat East Rowan for the 16th straight time in boys basketball Thursday night in a Sam Moir Christmas Classic semifinal, but the Cavs’ grinding 49-41 win over the Mustangs wasn’t Sweet 16 by any means. Instead, things were mostly sour for a North team that bore only a passing resemblance to the squad that dispatched perennial bully West Rowan for the second time this season back on Dec. 20.
Theories attempting to explain the usually high-energy Cavaliers’ mystifying malaise were as numerous as Munchkins in the “Wizard of Oz” and juicy rumors flew as thick as T-bones around Goodman Gymnasium
North senior Marcus Reddick, who led the Cavs (8-0) with 13 points, preferred to give credit to the fifth-seeded Mustangs (4-6) for causing North’s woes, and he wasn’t just being nice. East, running a Princeton-style offense, was a handful.
“It’s tough when you play a team that controls the tempo like East does,” said Reddick. “It was like they ran two minutes off the clock on every possession. They tired us out playing defense that long.”
Reddick also mentioned North’s eight-day layoff as a factor and it probably was. East had already won a tough game with South on Wednesday in the Catawba gym, while the Cavs made their adjustments to the big court on the fly last night. Reddick also shook his head, grimaced and commented that “our chemistry is not the best right now,” which could mean any number of things.
Rumors are merely rumors, but it is true that North senior point guard Dre Byrd, hero of the Cavs’ most recent win over the Falcons, a certain 1,000-point scorer and the catalyst for North’s up-tempo offense and pressure defense, did not start the contest. Byrd entered the action with 37 seconds left in the first quarter and saw relatively limited and relatively uninspired (at least by his standards) duty the rest of the way. He scored two points and shot 1-for-8.
Asked about Byrd’s curious spectator role at the start the game, Everhart explained that he was “looking at different combinations.” Everhart certainly did that. Twelve Cavs, including newly eligible big man Junior Farmer, who is 6-foot-7 or so, got minutes in a very competitive game.
“It was an uphill fight for us all night,” said Everhart. “It was a struggle for our guys to get up for this game and we have no excuses about that. I knew it would be a dogfight and I tried my best to tell our kids that it would be.”
You had to tip your cap to the Mustangs. North embarrassed basically the same kids by 65-23 in the tournament last season, mauled them by 56 points in Spencer in ‘99 and clocked them by 22 earlier this year.
But East promised to play with them this time, and it did. Adam Cornelius controlled the ball and the Mustangs made just a dozen turnovers. Recent East-North games have seen the Mustangs make 30 or so miscues, while the Cavs practiced layups and dunks. Not this time.
“I remember that 65-23 score and I know our kids haven’t forgotten that score,” said East coach Mark Flynn. “Tonight, we executed and ran the game plan and had great effort. We had the pace we wanted. A few shots rolled around and didn’t go in, but that’s basketball.
“I do know I couldn’t be prouder of my guys. They played their heart out. I wouldn’t trade ‘em for any team in this tournament.”
Had East shot just a little better, it might have pulled off the upset of the millennium. The Mustangs were right there, despite shooting just 27 percent (after making 59 percent on Tuesday). East faltered because it went 1-for-11 in a fourth quarter in which North came to life and outscored the Mustangs 18-3. The key to East’s icy shooting percentage was North guard Chris Phillips, who harassed East’s top marksman, Justin Miller, into a 2-for-15 night.
Both teams started cold. North staggered to an 11-7 lead after a quarter, but East went to the locker room up 25-23 when Cornelius tossed in a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from 35 feet.
Then, after a miserable third quarter in which they shot 2-for-10, the Cavs dropped behind 38-31 and the crowd was buzzing.
“It was like we were just waiting to make a spurt,” said Everhart. “But after awhile, you wonder if that spurt’s ever coming.”
Finally it came, in the opening moments of the fourth quarter. Marcus Lawing, who scored 10, had back-to-back power buckets and reserve James House got a big hoop. Flynn called time with 5:31 left and his team’s lead down to one. But his tiring troops couldn’t hang on. Bryan McCullough put North in front at the 5:04 mark and Phillips sank a huge 3-pointer to put the Cavs in charge by four.
East never could make a move. Taylor Weber, who led East with 16 points, got his team’s first field goal of the quarter with a layup with only 13 seconds left.
An emphatic dunk by Reddick ended the evening, but to be honest, few of the Cavs or their fans felt like celebrating.
“We feel very fortunate to get through this one,” sighed Everhart.
“We’ll have to play better against West in the championship,” said Reddick. “They’re a big team with a great coach (Mike Gurley), who knows a lot of tricks.”
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NOTES: East’s last win over North was in the Christmas Tournament in 1994. That was also the last time East won a first-round game. ... McCullough had seven blocks. ... Byrd said he expects to start tonight’s contest, which is scheduled to start at 7:30. ... If West plays as it did last night (a 12-point win over Davie) and North plays as it did in Mount Ulla, it could be one of the best finals ever. ... East plays No. 2 seed Davie (8-2) today in a 4 p.m. consolation game.
EASTROWAN (41) — Weber 16, Miller 7, Brady 7, Misenheimer 6, Cornelius 3, Belk 2, Butler, Whitley, Talbert.
NORTHROWAN (49) — Reddick 13, Lawing 10, McCullough 8, Phillips 7, Witherspoon 4, Byrd 2, Farmer 2, House 2, Davis 1. Hosch, Peoples, Bates.
East Rowan 7 18 13 3 — 41
North Rowan 11 12 8 18 — 49
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