North Rowan’s point guard had a great seat to watch teammate Marcus Reddick take his pass and pull up for the game-winning jump shot at Lexington on Monday night. The heroics with three seconds remaining gave theCavaliers a 64-63 win.

“We were just trying to get into the offense,”Reddick said. “Dre penetrated and I saw my man step over. I knew I had to make the shot.”

When Lexington’s desperation heave from half court sailed clear at the buzzer, North’s perfect record in the 2A Central Carolina Conference remained intact at 4-0. The Yellow Jackets fell to 2-1, but served notice they can run with the mercurial Cavaliers every step of the way.

“They like to run, we like to run,”Byrd said. “We knew coming in Lexington was very athletic. We had to buckle down and pull it out.”

Byrd worked hard for his game-high 20 points and played every role possible in the final minute. He went from hero, after a steal, to potential goat with an uncharacteristic turnover that led to Terrance Partee’s game-tying free throws.

With the score tied at 60 with 38 seconds remaining, Byrd almost lost the ball again. He scrambled to the floor with Lexington’s Henry Barnes and called a timeout that had the Yellow Jackets’ bench howling and Cavs’ fans breathing a sigh of relief.

Record-setting North quarterback Mario Sturdivant then took the next inbounds pass and fired a touchdown strike the length of the court to Byrd for a layup and 62-60 lead, but the Cav celebration ended quickly when Marquis Carroll hit an open 3-pointer from the corner with 13 seconds to go.

“We had set the play on the inbounds to go long again, but Lexington adjusted to it,”North head coach Kelly Everhart said of the strategy for the final play. “Instead we got it into Dre and had him push it up as quickly as possible. We knew that would still give us about nine seconds to work with.”

In fact, Byrd needed just six seconds. As he drove toward the free-throw line, three Lexington defenders moved in to stop him and Byrd actually tripped over one Yellow Jacket as he made the pass to Reddick. That’s why he witnessed the perfect 15-footer from his back.

Byrd stood tall in the first quarter, scoring six quick points to give the Cavaliers a 15-11 advantage after the opening eight minutes.

But Lexington’s size quickly evened matters, as Partee and Junior Hairston got the Jackets going in the second. Partee slammed home a breakaway dunk and Hairston scored twice in the post to spark a 7-0 run. North’s 29-28 halftime lead came courtesy of a four-point play, when Byrd pulled up for a long 3, connected and got contact from Michael Holshouser for a free throw in the final seconds.

Cavalier Bryan McCullough got hot in the third quarter and four of his points keyed a 14-0 North run that appeared to make the fourth quarter an academic exercise. Instead, Lexington rallied behind Steve McNeair, Carroll and Partee to narrow the gap.

“Early in the season we were struggling putting people away,”Everhart said. “Tonight every time we made a run Lexington countered with another run and it was right back even.

“They’re awfully talented,”Everhart added. “They did a good job moving the ball, and every time we got out of position they got down the floor for a layup.”

And even though Lexington didn’t pull out the win, the Yellow Jackets made a definite impression on the CCC’s only unbeaten team. Byrd said he’s glad the next meeting is on North’s home court, and even though he likes playing an uptempo game, it’s a lot more fun when the Cavaliers are controlling that tempo.

“A lot of people didn’t think we could stay up with them,”Lexington head coach Don Corry said. “This was one of the better games since I’ve been here three years. People who didn’t see it missed a great ballgame.”

NORTH ROWAN (64) —Byrd 20, Hosch, Phillips 5, A. Miller, Davis, McCullough 18, Sturdivant 4, Reddick 7, J. Miller 2, Lawing 8.

LEXINGTON (63) — McNeair 15, Holshouser 2, Hogan, Carroll 10, Barnes 9, Dawkins 2, Partee 10, Shaw 2, Hairston 13.

North Rowan 15 14 17 18 — 64