Four quarters. Eight minutes each. With only 32 minutes to get the job done, it’s no wonder only eight boys basketball players from Rowan County’s five current schools have reached the 40-point plateau.

South Rowan’s Damien Argrett became the latest player to hit that milestone Friday night when he scored a school-record 40 points against Northwest Cabarrus. The 22 rebounds he grabbed also broke the school mark, and most importantly, his amazing game helped the Raiders to a 99-90 win.

With South experiencing growing pains in a 6-11 season, Argrett was most excited about those 99 points.

“The first thing you look at is team,”Argrett said. “The last thing on my mind is individual stats. I just play hard.”

Argrett, now averaging 15.5 points a game, didn’t show early signs that he was on the verge of something historic. He scored four points in the first quarter and had 12 at halftime to go along with 10 rebounds.

South also had 21 turnovers in the opening quarters, and the improved guard play of Drew King and Nathan Kennedy in the second half was one of the main reasons Argrett scored 28 points in the final 16 minutes. When King andKennedy began to solve the Trojans’ trap, Argrett was back for the Raiders and had only one or two defenders to beat for a layup.

But even though the easy shots were falling, Argrett still did his share of hard work. He grabbed 10 rebounds in the quarter, quite a feat for the senior who stood only 5-foot-11 last season before sprouting eight inches over the past school year.

“Last summer when we had open gym he was here, he was lifting weights, really developing into a team leader,”South head coach John Davis said. “I think we’ll see him playing at a higher level.”

Argrett didn’t let up in the fourth quarter. He hit all six field-goal attempts, the last one coming on a long pass from King for yet another layup. He fouled out 24 seconds later with that nice round number.

“What’d he end up with, 40?”Northwest head coach Greg McKenzie asked sarcastically after the game, disappointed with his team’s defense.

Actually … yes.

“Really? He was awesome tonight.”

Record-setting awesome, in fact.

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STOPPER: Northwest sharp-shooter Matt Hubbard finished with a team-high 23 points but had to work hard for most of them.

The senior guard shot 9-for-23 from the field and scored 12 of his points in the fourth quarter when South had the game in hand. As far as Davis was concerned, there was only one reason Hubbard struggled.

“Darryl Childers did a helluva job defensively on Hubbard. His points came late when Darryl wasn’t on him,”Davis said.

Childers scored only five points, which made the game he played all the better, Davis said, because he got to point out another lesson to the rest of the Raiders.

“Scoring doesn’t always say what a kid does.”

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ASSIST KING: On that same note, one of South’s most consistent players this season has been King, who averages a modest 7.5 ppg, but adds a similar number of assists.

“People look at the stats and say, ‘Drew only scored six points or Drew only scored eight points,’” explained Davis. “But people who say that don’t know much about basketball. People who know what to look for know Drew is a good fundamental player and does all the things that don’t show up on the scoresheet.”

King, who has scored in double figures three times, also surprises people with one of the better turnaround jump shots in the county.

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COOLKATIE:South’s girls, despite a disappointing loss to Northwest Cabarrus on Friday, are getting better.

A big reason for that is freshman point guard Katie Willett, who is driving and dishing more and settling for 3-point attempts less.

Willett was 0-for-1 from the field in the second half in South’s win over Kannapolis on Thursday, but was one of the keys to victory with a half-dozen second-half assists.

“Katie is getting more confident and especially is getting more vocal out there,” said South coach James Greene. “She’s saying some things to the other girls that I can’t believe. I’m proud of how she’s growing up as a player.”

Coach Kelly Everhart was glad to see his North boys get a couple of Central Carolina Conference wins during the past week after an unexpected layoff.

His first-place Cavaliers beat High Point Central 78-61 on Friday,Jan. 14, then went the next five days with one practice because of snow.

North practiced Monday, when school was out for the Martin Luther King holiday, and had games scheduled with Kannapolis A.L. Brown and Salisbury the next two nights. Tuesday’s early morning snowfall resulted in postponements of both games.

“We didn’t practice Tuesday or Wednesday,” pointed out Everhart. “Even though the roads were pretty clear, I considered it, but I just couldn’t justify it if a kid had a wreck.”

The Cavaliers, 7-0 in the CC and 14-3 overall, then beat arch-rival Salisbury 77-72 in overtime on Thursday and East Davidson 74-61 on Friday.

“I feel like we are a little sluggish right now,” said Everhart after Friday’s win. “I don’t know if it’s from being off the snow days and then coming back and playing last (Thursday) night.”

His Cavaliers had to come from behind to tie Salisbury on Dre Byrd’s basket with about 10 seconds to play in regulation before winning it in overtime.

“Last night (Thursday) was an emotional game for us. Tonight (Friday), maybe we were a little tired.Maybe our legs were not as fresh as if we had played Salisbury earlier in the week. Kids are 16, 17, 18 years old. They’ve got to bounce back. Once you get to tournament time, you’ve got to play several nights in a row,” he said.

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PROMOTIONS: North girls coach Gary Atwell has moved two jayvee players up to the varsity — sophomore Joy Bowers and freshman Crystal Craige.

“We lost Tasha (LaTasha Pharr), and that’s a lot of speed and a lot of go-getum. I wanted to replace the speed with Joy and Crystal,” said Atwell.

Pharr, North’s No. 2 scorer with an 11.3 average, tried to play basketball and practice and compete in indoor track, and the junior track All-American decided she had to give up basketball.

“They (Bowers and Craige) are both very, very good athletes, and they’re going to be good basketball players. They just needed some experience at the varsity level,” said Atwell.

Bowers had been on the varsity roster earlier in the season, but didn’t play in her first game until Thursday in a 43-37 win at Salisbury. Against East Davidson in Friday’s 49-31 victory, she scored seven points and grabbed three rebounds.

Craige, daughter of former North star Benny Craige, also played in both games. She scored her first varsity point at the foul line against East Davidson and also contributed three rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Crystal and her father have now scored a combined 1,076 points for North. Benny, a 1969 graduate, ranks seventh on the Cavaliers’ all-time list with 1,075.

Crystal, of course, has three-plus years to add to that father-daughter total.

Teammate Megan Honeycutt, by the way, has teamed up with her dad, Stan, to score 1,926 career points. The Honeycutts should wind up with over 2,000, but not at the same school — 1,435 by Megan.

Stan, a point guard who graduated from East Rowan in 1975, scored 491 in three varsity seasons with the Mustangs. His coach at East was former North star Gilbert Sprinkle, who led the 1963 Cavaliers in scoring (14.0) as North won the NorthPiedmont Conference championship and went 18-3.

Salisbury boys basketball coach Drew Mathews has made this speech several times this season, and he will continue until it sinks in.

The speech: Play to your potential.

“To go from a player to a coach is a transition that a lot of coaches go through,” said the second-year coach and former Catawba College player. “I couldn’t wait to play basketball.

“And I want my kids to realize it is a fun game.It will take you around the world, give you a lot of different experiences and get you a college education.”

Mathews said all of this Friday night after watching his team lose a 19-point lead and lose by 15 to High Point Central, 71-56.

“These kids have that same opportunity,” he said. “They just have to seize the moment.”

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OFFTHEBENCH: Byran Speigner has always sat the bench until mop-up time but that may be a thing of the past.

Speigner, a 6-4 senior, saw significant minutes against High Point Central.

“He has stepped up over the last couple of games,” said Mathews. “Itold him I wanted defensive rebounds and that’s just what he gave me.”

For the record, Speigner pulled down six rebounds to go with four points Friday night.

West coach Mike Gurley can hardly believe what he had when he thinks about the bench he enjoyed and employed last year when the Falcons made the 3A state finals.

And what a bench it was. Defensive stoppers Terris Sifford (now a starter) and Tommy Lee, shooters Brian Hatley and Mark Johnson, ballhandler Brandon Mattox and big man Donte Minter (now a starter).

“That was some bench,” said Gurley, who is not as deep this year, but is trying hard to make his bench longer for the stretch run.

One player to watch may be junior Vicco Barringer, who exploded for 13 points against East Rowan on Friday in a West romp.

“A lot of the young guys on our bench will help a great deal next year,” said Gurley. “We won’t have Scooter Sherrill next year, but 1-through-10, we might be just as good.”

Gurley says he’s constantly looking down the road for more help— and is on top of West’s entire program.

“I know our jayvee kids and our middle school guys,” said Gurley. “Heck, I’ll even check out those sixth-graders from time to time.”

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BANKONSCHENK: West senior Kari Schenk has scored 195 points this season and is now the school’s No. 3 all-time girls scorer.

Schenk, a four-year starter, has totalled 1,226 career points and now trails only Andrea Grissett (1,539) and Wendy Hampton (1,764).

Schenk has surpassed Jan Gillean (1,075), Kim Morgan (1,051) and Sharon Weast (1,049) during the course of this season.

Schenk has scored in double figures in 16 of 17 games this season, with her only miss coming in a nine-point effort in an early blowout win over South.

Speaking of double figures, East’s Emily Rich’s stock is rising with a bullet.

Rich averaged only 6.3 ppg in her first 10 games this season, but the junior has picked that up to 11.9 ppg in her last nine outings.

She kept up that higher scoring trend Friday night in the Mustangs’ loss to West, scoring 12 points and pulling down 12 rebounds.

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CLOSINGFAST: Nicole Loggins snapped a slump and scored 18 points against West on Friday, and now needs only 63 points to equal Julie Austin’s school record of 1,279 points.

Austin, one of last season’s Mustangs, now plays at Catawba College.

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