North Rowan’s boys basketball team warmed up for bigger things on Friday night by finishing the regular season unbeaten.
CoachKelly Everhart’s powerful Cavaliers triumphed 83-57 at arch-rival Salisbury for a 22-0 regular-season record. North is only the fourth team in Rowan County history to be undefeated in the regular season.
The Cavaliers also posted back-to-back perfect (12-0) conference records for the first time in history.
Now North takes aim on the CCC Tournament at West Davidson next week and the 2A West Sectional No. 4 Tournament in Hickory the following week.
“I think we’re ready,” said North post player Marcus Lawing, who contributed 14 points, nine rebounds and three assists to the victory. “We really got upset last year having lost to High Point (CCC semifinals). We want to win it this year, because we’ve worked too hard this season to go losing anything.”
North doesn’t have to win the conference tournament, since it’s already assured of a bye into the second round of the sectionals, but the Cavaliers want momentum for the state playoffs.
“We want to go to ChapelHill(state finals). That’s been our goal for three years straight. This is the year,” said Lawing.
Marcus Reddick led North’s scoring with 17 points last night, followed by reserve Eric Davis with 15, Lawing with 14 and Bryan McCullough with 11.
Salisbury’s Randall Jones knocked in four 3-pointers in the second period and helped keep it reasonable close into the third quarter. He finished with 22 points. Freshman Jamar Conners and sophomore Bryan Roten added 11 and 10, respectively.
“Salisbury improved a whole lot since the last time we played them,” said Lawing.
Coach Drew Mathews’ young Hornets closed out the regular season at 4-17 overall and 2-10(sixth place) in the CCC. Salisbury will take on the No. 3 seed, either HighPoint Central or Lexington, at 5:35 p.m. Tuesday in the first round of the league tournament at West Davidson.
“Playing Salisbury here is always tough,” said Everhart. “I thought Drew’s kids shot the ball extremely well from the 3-point arc, and we knew that we were going to have to defend against that in order to stretch out a lead. He’s got some young kids that I’m very impressed with. There in the first half, when the score was 29-9 at one point, they could have easily folded up and packed it in, but they didn’t. They kept fighting.”
Salisbury made eight 3-pointers.
The Hornets got as close as 44-33 on two free throws by Jones early in the third period before the Cavs pulled away and eventually led by 31.
“I thought we did some very good things out here tonight, and certainly I think that we can build on this game.I thought we were very unselfish with the ball.I thought we made some great passes. I was particularly impressed with how well we ran the floor,” said Everhart.
North shot well whether Everhart had starters or reserves on the floor. The Cavaliers went 33-for-67 (49.3 percent) on field goals.
There were 23 assists by seven different players with McCullough’s seven leading the way. Point guard Chris Phillips had five assists.
North, led by Lawing and reserve Junior Farmer (eight rebounds) had a 48-30 advantage on the boards.
NORTH ROWAN (83) — Lawing 14, Hosch 8, McCullough 11, Reddick 17, Phillips 6, Davis 15, Farmer 1, Bates 2, Witherspoon 2, House 6, Peoples 1.
SALISBURY (57) — Campbell, Conners 11, Knauf 5, Jones 22, Blount 5, Geter 3, Fields, Roten 10, Davis 1.
North Rowan 29 13 22 19 — 83
Salisbury 9 20 12 16 — 57
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