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MOUNTULLA — This time, Donte Minter was human. West Rowan’s boys basketball team, however, was not.
West crunched South Rowan 92-59 on Tuesday night in a performance that was downright scary, when you consider that four key football-playing Falcons are still cheering for their buddies from the bleachers.
Or when you consider that Minter, who had 56 percent of his team’s points in last week’s win over Salisbury, only had 22 percent of the team total this time. Not that Minter was bad or anything. After all, he had 20 points, eight boards, at least five blocks and made six of his last seven field-goal attempts.
But in Game 2, Minter had serious help.Tim Mauldin (19 points), Phillip Williams (17 points) and friends proved that coach Mike Gurley’s 2000-01 team is the West Rowan Falcons not the West Rowan Minters — just as it was the West Falcons, and not the West Sherrills, last season.
The gargantuan Falcons (2-0), who usually had four players 6-foot-3 or taller on the floor, were overwhelming. They shot nearly 60 percent from the field and outrebounded South, which is going to have its work cut out on the boards even against average-sized teams, 53-28.
“South is a good basketball team,” said West coach Mike Gurley. “It was just one of those nights when everything clicked for us and nothing clicked for them.”
“West towered over us,” said South coach John Davis. “They just put it up and put it up until they put it in. Our stats show West made eight shots outside the lane. That means our guys have got to do a better job of boxing out.”
South also has to shoot better than 31 percent. Gurley came into the game scratching his dome nervously over the Raiders’ trio of 3-point threats — Doug Daugherty, Scott Beck and Tore’ Girty. But West’s long-armed defenders altered a ton of South shooting attempts, especially early. When the Raiders looked up at the scoreboard after five minutes, they were in a 17-2 pit, even though they had limited Minter to just one field goal.
“It happened so fast it was amazing,” said Williams, the primary culprit with nine lightning-quick points.
“It was a big shock,” added Mauldin. “But we knew they would come back.”
South (1-2) did. It made a strong run to close the gap to 22-15 early in the second quarter, but then its shooting cooled and stayed cool. And that wasn’t cool if the Raiders hoped to compete with West. Beck, who was lights out in an opening night win over East, didn’t make a field goal. Daugherty scored 12 points, but shot just 5-for-19. Girty was held to 10 points and just one harmless 3-ball.
“Our exterior pressure on their shooters was the key to the game,” said Gurley.
It was pretty much over by halftime at 47-25, even though both teams kept getting on the floor right up to the final buzzer.
“It was clank, clank, clank for us,” sighed Davis. “It was Ice City. We’re a perimeter-oriented team and when we don’t shoot well, we can really look bad. Obviously, we wanted to put some pressure on West, but it’s hard to press if you never score?”
West’s lead swelled to 28 in the third quarter after Gurley re-introduced the 6-foot-8 Minter to his teammates in the halftime locker room. Junior Hairston and T.J. Gaither started finding the big fellow, and Minter responded with five quick buckets.
“No disrespect to our team — and it is a team — about all the good things they were doing out there,” boomed Gurley. “But Donte has to be our first option. And for a while there, we just weren’t looking for him. We’ve got to look.”
“Ah, we know Donte’s the No. 1 guy,” said Mauldin.
But Mauldin was a pretty good No. 2 guy last night. The only way anyone could have figured out he was the same guy as that Mauldin who was on last year’s team was that flaming red hair. He made three 3s — and he’s going to get plenty of chances to make more with everyone sagging on Minter.
But Maudlin did more than shoot. He was extremely active at the top of West’s zone defense and finished a bundle of fastbreaks at the rim on his way to a career high in points. His best game last season was 10.
“Tim needed a game like this,” said Gurley. “He’s capable of doing it every night. He reaffirmed all that hard work he put in this summer.”
Speaking of hard work, Maurice Torrence, South’s undersized center, blue-collared his way to 21 points, even though he picked up two fouls guarding Minter in the first two minutes and fouled out with 5:37 remaining. Minter reached down and gave the 6-2 leaper a respectful slap on the seat of his pants as Torrence reluctantly headed for the South bench to an ovation from fans on both sides.
“What can you say about him?” said Davis. “Maurice has a big heart.”
“Torrence is smart,” praised Gurley. “He adjusted. When he found out he couldn’t shoot it over us, he figured out ways to go under us.”
But it’s the Falcons, 58-5 since Minter arrived on the varsity, who are adjusting on the fly to new, very young personnel and still rocking and rolling.
“There were a lot of people out there who didn’t think we would be 2-0 without the football guys,” smiled the bespectacled Williams. “But, hey, we’re pretty good.”
Yes, they are. It’s like that notebook that Gurley lugs around says, “No more Scooter ... same old Falcons.”
SOUTH ROWAN (59) — Torrence 21, Daugherty 12, Girty 10, Patterson 5, Diggs 4, Beck 3, Childers 3, Mack 1, Biles, Willett, Kennedy, Hornbeak, Propst.
WESTROWAN (92) — Minter 20, Mauldin 19, P. Williams 16, Barringer 8, Avery 7, Gaither 6, Hairston 5, Pritchard 4, Goodnight 4, J. Williams 3, Trosper.
South Rowan 13 12 16 18 — 59 West Rowan 22 25 22 23 — 92
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