GRANITE QUARRY — Defending state 3A champion Central Cabarrus won as expected here Tuesday night, but East Rowan’s boys stayed close to the Vikings most of the night.

Central, an 84-65 winner at the East gym, led by only six points early in the fourth quarter.

“I told the guys we played real well for 28 1/2 minutes,” said East coach Mark Flynn after the South Piedmont Conference opener for both teams. “I don’t know if we ran out of gas. We’re still getting in game condition.”

Central improved to 2-0 overall, while the Mustangs dropped to 1-2.

Coach Scott Brewer’s Vikings led by 12 during the third period, but East pulled within 59-53 after the Mustangs’ Taylor Weber scored a layup off the center jump when Raymondo Brady tapped the ball to him. East was still within eight several minutes later after a basket by 6-4 sophomore center Matt Butler made it 67-59.

The Vikings, with Nathan Cranford, Maurice Stafford and Jeremiah Buck doing most of the damage, then pushed their lead to double figures and eventually won by 19.

Cranford and Buck, two returning starters from the state championship team, and Daniel Bagnasco each scored 17 points to lead the Vikings.

Weber led East’s scoring with 17 points, but Brady (14), Butler (12) and JustinMiller (12) joined him in double figures. Brady and Butler each had career highs.

“I think this is the best East Rowan team that Mark’s had,” said Brewer. “The Weber kid, the Miller kid, the (Adam) Cornelius kid: I know they’ve been on the varsity for three years. Right now he’s got them believing a little bit.”

Flynn said, “I thought we played hard. Maybe that’s something we can build on. We’ve got a lot of seniors, and we’ve talked about there’s not going to be any moral victories for us this year. These guys here: They want to win every game they can.”

Central is much smaller this season after losing 6-8 Doug Naumann and 6-7 David Hardy by graduation, and Brewer’s Vikings are playing a different style of ball, instead of the halfcourt game of a year ago.

“We pressed more tonight than we did all last year. Last year for the season, we were 25-for-49 (average shooting per game), which is pretty impressive, to be above 50 percent,” pointed out Brewer. “The other night at Mount Pleasant, we shot it 79 times, so that’s 30 more shots this year than last year in a game. It’s a different tempo.”

Central was 34-for-75 (45.3 percent) last night.

“I think we’ve got to play that way to beat the good teams and to rebound,” said Brewer. “We can’t get down in there and rebound with the big boys, but when it gets like this, we might can rebound.”

Central had a 38-33 rebound edge, led by center Stephen Knorr with nine, but Flynn was pleased with the way East did on the boards.

“We did a heck of a job on the boards. We didn’t give up a lot of putbacks like we have in the past to Central,” said Flynn, whose team was led by Weber with a game-high 11 rebounds.

Flynn was especially pleased with sophomore Butler’s performance in his third game of the season and fourth of his career.

“He played a great game for a sophomore on both ends of the floor. He’s very strong around the basket and aggressive. He put the ball in the basket and made his foul shots,” said the East coach.

Flynn had said last week that he wanted to bring Butler, his center of the future, along slowly, but the strong big man has now had two double-figure games in three outings. Last night he went 3-for-5 on field goals and 6-for-6 at the foul line with five rebounds and a blocked shot.

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NOTES: Cranford, a junior and a third-year starter, hit three of Central’s seven 3-pointers and contributed five assists, four steals and five rebounds to the Vikings’ cause. Buck also had three 3-pointers. ... East outscored Central at the foul line, going 17-for-24 to the Vikings’ 9-for-14, but East was only 22-for-57 (38.6 percent) from the floor. ... East had 28 turnovers to Central’s 19. ... Miller kept East in the contest early with seven first-quarter points, then Brady took over with eight points in the second period. Weber had a big third quarter with nine points, then Butler led the way with six in the last period. ... East hosts Piedmont on Friday.

CENTRAL CABARRUS (84) — Cranford 17, Stafford 8, Knorr 8, Buck 17, Bagnasco 17, Harris 5, Wright 4, Shear 2, Thomas 6.

EASTROWAN (65) — Misenheimer 2, Belk 3, Weber 17, Miller 12, Cornelius 5, Brady 14, Whitley, Ledbetter, Butler 12, Talbert.

C. Cabarrus 26 16 17 25 — 84 East Rowan 14 19 18 14 — 65