GRANITE QUARRY — Mark Flynn didn’t want to talk about it Thursday night.The third-year East Rowan boys basketball coach had just
watched his hard-luck team fall to last-place Piedmont and, quite simply, there
wasn’t much to say.
“Well, it was a great win for us,”
winning coach Milt Flowe said after the visiting Panthers topped East 57-51 and gained
their first 3A South Piedmont Conference victory. “Sooner or later, we knew this
night would come.”
Piedmont (4-12 overall, 1-9 SPC) overcame a
careless start and rallied past the Mustangs (3-14, 2-8) by converting nine of 12 free
throws in the final 1:33. The guests scored the game’s last six points — all
from the foul line in the closing minute.
“I was glad to see that,” Flowe said
after Piedmont snapped a seven-game losing streak. “It was a big test for us in the
end and we didn’t fold. We stayed in control and didn’t get rattled.”
East, which earned an eight-point win over
Piedmont when the teams first met on Dec. 3, raced to a 10-2 lead in the opening four
minutes, thanks largely to a pair of bang-bang baskets by junior forward Taylor Weber.
But the Panthers battled back and took the lead
for good when Tony Baker grabbed an offensive rebound and hit a putback with 5:20
remaining in the second quarter.
“I thought Tony did a real good job scoring
and hitting the boards,” Flowe said after Baker finished with a team-high 14 points
and 11 rebounds. “He helped us turn the game around.”
Teammate Kenneth Christian helped seal the deal
with three consecutive baskets early in the third period. First he hit a short jumper from
the left side to extend Piedmont’s two-point halftime lead. Next he crashed the
boards for a rebound and kissed a layup off the glass. Finally, he got loose for an
uncontested 10-foot jump shot from inside the lane, giving the Panthers a 34-26 edge
— their largest of the night — just 2:20 into the second half.
East, which found itself seven points down early
in the fourth quarter, got baskets from Mark Misenheimer and Weber to close within one
late in the contest, then tied the score 51-51 when Justin Miller converted both ends of a
one-and-one with 54 seconds to play.
“I know we were concerned,” said Flowe.
“We were looking at the scoreboard and shaking our heads.”
Moments later, after Nick Rushing, Robbie Stauffer
and Scott Manshack each sank two free throws, they were spotted shaking their fists with
delight.
“We were excited,” said Flowe. “We
finally got a conference win and it’s our first win since before Christmas.
That’s a long time to wait.”
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