KANNAPOLIS — West Rowan’s boys basketball team wins so routinely that it’s become the prep equivalent of the New York Yankees of the 1960s. You either love foot-stomping coach Mike Gurley and his towering troops or you loathe them. Few fans straddle the fence.
In recent years, Falcon-haters have grown to love the South Piedmont Conference Tournament, because West actually loses in the event on occasion.
West is 101-14 overall in the Gurley Era, which means it wins 88 percent of the time. The loss chart breaks down like this: four losses in nonconference games to county rivals; three in the Sam Moir Christmas Classic; two in the Western Regionals; one in the state championship game; two in the SPC regular season; and, finally, two in the SPC Tournament.
In other words, Gurley’s team had lost as many times in nine SPC tourney games prior to Thursday night as it had in 64 SPC regular-season games. Those are the sort of odds that Falcon-haters love.
But West disappointed its critics and delighted its followers one more time, winning what amounted to a road game in Bullock Gym. It out-muscled A.L. Brown 75-55 in a semifinal that contained elements of hockey, boxing and Australian Rules football. There were also bits and pieces of solid hoops thrown in.
West (22-4), which has won 13 straight, goes for its second straight tourney title tonight at 7:30 p.m. against Sun Valley (19-6), an easy semifinal victor over Harding. Now, foes of the Falcons can get their hopes up all over again. After all, Sun Valley was responsible for one of those 14 West losses in a regular-season contest three years ago.
Gurley makes it no secret he doesn’t emphasize the SPC and Christmas tournaments, calling them “dress rehearsals” for the important stuff. Instead, he stresses the importance of winning the conference regular-season title, a feat which proves you’re the best over the long haul. Gurley also likes success in the state playoffs, and, of course, has won three straight sectionals.
The bottom line is that the top-seeded Falcons aren’t worried nearly as much about winning a tourney title tonight as they are about the playoff dance that starts next week. That explains why Gurley wasn’t unhappy that the fifth-seeded Wonders (12-12) made his team sweat instead of swagger for the first time. The previous two games (63-41 and 82-50 West waltzes) were over right after the national anthem was sung. But this time West led by one late in the first half and by only 10 late in the game.
“K-Town came out and really got after us,” said Gurley, whose team shut out the Wonders in the first quarter the last time it visited Bullock. “That’s fine. We got better. We learned good lessons, because we were placed in some difficult situations when the game became chaotic.”
“Chaotic” was putting it mildly. This was a frenzied foul-fest that evoked memories of Ali-Frazier. Or maybe roller derby.
“Was it physical?” laughed soph Junior Hairston, the Falcons’ 6-foot-6 defensive demon. “Yeah, it was. They surprised us. Those Kannapolis guys were pumped up to take us out tonight. But if you can’t take it when it’s physical, you can’t play basketball. We focused and really took it to them on defense in the second half.”
The critical point in the game came at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second. That’s when West went from clinging to a 30-29 lead to holding a relatively secure 46-30 edge. The Falcons put together a blistering 16-1 run fueled by defense. There were big blocks by Donte Minter and Hairston and steals by Terris Sifford, Tim Mauldin and Horatio Everhart.
Wonder coach Shelwyn Klutz yelled for a timeout just a minute into the second half and burned another one three minutes later. But the Falcons kept right on rampaging, silencing the Wonders’ 3-point game and creating layups with crisp passes.
“We fell apart early in the third quarter,” said Klutz. “We were still playing very hard, but we made turnovers and took quick shots and West turned them into easy baskets. That’s been our tendency all year. We get down 10 and we stop being patient.”
“We feel pretty good about the way our defense played,” said Gurley, which is sort of like Bill Gates feeling pretty good about his bank account. “Sifford was like the Tazmanian Devil in the cartoons. He was just flying around out there. When he bends his legs and decides to stop someone, he makes it very hard to score.”
Amazingly, the Wonders made just five second-half field goals against Sifford and his associates. And while Wonder stars Aundrae Allison and Jason Brown were held to a combined 19 points, West got 21 from Minter and 18 from Mauldin.
“Mauldin had a good game and needed it,” said Gurley. “His last four games have been not so good and it’s been bothering him. You press in all areas of the game when your shot’s not falling. I know. I was the same way. Looking at Timmy has been like looking at myself.”
The Wonders actually crept as close as 62-52 with 2:42 remaining and Terry Collins had a look at an open 3 that would have cut the gap to seven. But Collins missed, and then the Falcons got serious. Minter swooped in for a layup, then blocked a shot by Allison. Then Minter knocked down four free throws to push the lead back to the comfort zone — and send the ABW crowd (Anybody But West) toward the exits.
The Wonders haven’t exited the season yet, though. They’ll play a first-round state playoff game on the road Monday.
“This game has to help us for the playoffs,” said Brown. “If we play as intense as we did in the first half, we’ll go deep (in the playoffs). The first two times we weren’t even in the game with West. Tonight, we had our chances. But to beat them you’ve got to make all your shots.”
And outside of that “Hoosiers” flick, no one does that. Love ’em or loathe ’em, look for the Falcons to keep rolling along.
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NOTES: Minter, only a junior, quietly passed another milestone, slipping past Joel Fleming (1,357 points) into second place on the Falcons’ all-time scoring list. Minter, who now has 1,365 points, trails only Scooter Sherrill (2,469). ... West cashed in 15 free throws in the final quarter. ... You can tell baseball practice has started. Gurley said the Wonders “threw his team some change-ups and off-speed stuff and then came back in with some fastballs.” ... Brandon Thomas led the Wonders with 14 points. ... One more startling Falcon factoid: West has lost once in the busy month of January over the last four years.
A.L. BROWN (55) — Brown 7, Thomas 14, A. Allison 12, Blakeney 5, Miller 6, Barrier 4, Collins 3, Reeves 2, Abercrombie 2, Blackmon, Robinson, Furr, Crawford, T. Allison.
WESTROWAN (75) — Mauldin 18, Sifford 7, Hairston 7, Everhart 8, Minter 21, P. Williams 9, Barringer 3, J. Williams, Johnson, Goodnight, Pritchard 2, Trosper, High, Diggs, Gaither.
A.L. Brown 15 14 8 18 — 55
W. Rowan 18 16 18 23 — 75
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