TheMustangs took advantage of foul trouble on Wonder guard Jason Brown and center Gerrell McCrae to gradually pull away from Kannapolis in the fourth quarter. The victory on Senior Night moved the Mustangs to 4-17 overall and 3-11 in the 3ASouth Piedmont Conference, while Kannapolis fell to 4-15, 2-11.

“When he got his fourth foul, Gerrell played too conservatively,”Wonders head coach Shelwyn Klutz said. “He was soft on the inside, trying not to foul out.”

McCrae dominated East through the first three quarters, using his superior size and strength to score 10 points and pull down 13 rebounds. Brown showed his deft shooting touch from the perimeter with a 10-point third quarter that had things tied at 38-all at the end of three quarters.

Only 2:15 ticked off the clock before both McCrae and Brown were whistled for their fourth fouls. Taylor Weber’s free throw tied the game at 41-all, and the East attack shifted into high gear.

“The last couple of games we’ve been looking to drive the ball and push it inside more,”Mustangs head coach Mark Flynn said. “We looked to go inside and maybe foul those guys out, and that loosened the perimeter up.”

Weber rattled home a short jumper, then drove the lane for an easy layup. He and Justin Miller added scores in the paint to put East ahead 51-47 with two minutes remaining, and Adam Cornelius’ putback seconds later kept the margin at four points after McCrae had scored in the lane.

Wonder DeAngelo Collins hit a jumper to close within 53-51 with 49 seconds left, but East hit six free throws in the final seconds to seal the win. Weber’s nine points in the quarter gave him a team-high 14, shared with Cornelius.

“My shots started falling and we came together,”Weber said. “I had three at halftime and the shots just weren’t falling. They got us down and we said that we weren’t going to let them beat us.”

Kannapolis’ foul trouble and woeful shooting down the stretch made sure of that. TheWonders’ 4-for-20 effort in the fourth quarter left them at 25 percent (17-for-67).

“You cannot win when you shoot 4-for-20 in the fourth quarter,”Klutz said. “We did not shoot the ball well enough to win.”

East shot 39 percent (21-for-54) in the often-ragged action. The Mustangs forced 15 turnovers with an improved pressure defense, but many times gave the ball right back trying for a fastbreak opportunity. East finished with 23 turnovers, but Flynn was pleased primarily with what he saw on defense.

“Our halfcourt trap produced some turnovers,”Flynn said. “That might have been the difference in the game, the points we got out of that.”

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NOTES: Seniors Luke Hollifield and Michael Shepherd, as well as foreign exchange student Borja Martinez, got starts in East’s home finale. Martinez scored in the opening minutes with a nice runner in the lane, and Hollifield scored on a layup. Shepherd, plagued with foul trouble, didn’t score but grabbed eight rebounds. “I was glad to send the two seniors and our exchange student out with a win,”Flynn said.

KANNAPOLIS (51) — Collins 6, Brown 22, Clowney 2, Miller 1, Gibson 5, Allison, Henry 2, McCrae 12, Barrier 1.

EAST ROWAN (59) — Ledbetter 3, Sides 3, Cornelius 14, Miller 13, Weber 14, Misenheimer 8, Hollifield 2, Shepherd, Rusher, Martinez 2.

Kannapolis 11 13 14 13 — 51