Jason Williams sprinted over to Mike Gurley following the alley-oop jam and gave his coach a high-five, then he tried to bump chests with brother Phillip at the top of the key.
The reaction was strange enough because Phillip, not Jason, was the Williams that had slammed the ball for a rim-rattling dunk.
The fact that the field goal, West Rowan’s third of the game, occurred only 1 minute, 37 seconds into the game made the celebration even more interesting.
But the Falcons proved on Friday night that the importance of three quick scores can’t be underestimated.
West, thanks to the high-flying heroics of the Williams brothers, jumped out to an early lead on North Rowan and swept aside the Cavaliers 76-42 in the semifinals of the Sam Moir Christmas Classic at Goodman Gymnasium.
The Falcons (10-0), who will face South Rowan tonight at 7:30 p.m. for the title, held North Rowan (3-6) to three field goals in the entire first half and led 44-11 at the break.
“I never would have thought that we would have played that bad ...,” North coach Kelly Everhart said.
“I thought we acted very intimidated stepping on the court tonight. I would have thought all the jitterbugs and nervousness about playing West Rowan would have been long gone since we’ve played them twice.”
West Rowan scored the first 12 points of the game and held the Cavaliers without a field goal in seven tries in the first quarter.
The Falcons went ahead 44-8 with less than a minute to play in the half before Kevin Rutherford drained a 3-pointer, one of three makes in 19 tries from the floor for North Rowan in the first 16 minutes.
The Cavaliers had made only six shots from the field through three quarters and shot 23 percent for the game.
Horatio Everhart and T.J. Gaither, who had six assists, played a key role by harassing North’s perimeter players with their on-the-ball defense.
“The big thing was our guard play,” Phillip Williams said. “Their guards, to me, were just the key to their whole offense. Our guards just did a great job of stopping them from getting into their offense.”
Williams scored 14 points and pulled down six rebounds for West, which was led by Donte Minter’s 21 points and eight rebounds.
Williams finished the night with three dunks, including two on successive plays in the fourth quarter.
His first dunk set the tone for the evening, though.
The Falcons led 4-0 when Jason Williams sent a lob pass to the rim for Phillip, who soared in from the left baseline.
Phillip made the dunk and was fouled, sending his twin brother into a frenzied celebration.
“Most people tell us, ‘I want to see you throw an alley-oop to your brother,’ ” Jason said. “I threw it, and I just felt great for it.”
Said Phillip, “He’s not the throwing-type like T.J. is. That was the one to get the game going, get it started, from brother to brother.”
Had the brothers ever connected on an alley-oop in a game before?
“Maybe in the backyard, but never in a game,” Phillip said.
The victory was West’s third of the season against North. More importantly to Everhart, it should be the Falcons’ last.
“Three times is enough,”Everhart said.“Back in the old days when we were in the same conference, we could even meet possibly two more times. I’m thankful we’re not in that situation any more.”
West now advances to the final to face the Raiders, who beat Davie County in double-overtime. The Falcons will be the clear favorites, but Gurley can’t afford to take this game lightly.
The Falcons haven’t won a tournament championship of any kind since March 2000.
“We’ve been bridesmaids a lot, and there’s a chance we might be bridesmaids tomorrow,”Gurley said. “Right now we’re trying to learn how to deal with the tournament atmosphere, and this Christmas tournament is the perfect environment to do that.”
NORTH ROWAN (42) — Rankin 9, Mitchell 8, Rutherford 6, Geter 5, Horton 4, Pemberton 4, Bates 4, House 2, Farmer.
WEST ROWAN (76) — Minter 21, P. Williams 14, Ramsey 12, Gaither 8, Hairston 5, Avery 5, Patterson 3, J. Williams 2, Scearce 2, Johnson 2, White 2, Hartsell.
North Rowan 2 9 13 18 — 42
West Rowan 22 22 17 15 — 76
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Contact Bret Strelow at 704-797-4258 or bstrelow@salisburypost.com
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