Bison not convinced about Cavs’ basketball

The high school basketball notebook ...

High Point Central boys coach Stephen Johnson refuses to concede that North Rowan’s undefeated Cavs are going to run away with the CCC race, even after they whipped the Bison 77-64 on Friday night in Spencer.

“North played an excellent game and we played a pretty good game,” Johnson said. “I’m not gonna say that they’re better than us. I’m not saying anyone is. I think we’re a darned good team. I think we can beat anybody.”

Johnson pointed out that the foul line, where his team missed 10 opportunities, and a number of blown layups were the difference.

“If we had made our foul shots and if we had made our layups — who knows?” said Johnson.

Of course, North wasn’t exactly at full strength. The Cavs were minus Marcus Lawing, who missed the game with a high temperature. The steady power forward is good for 10 points and 10 rebounds every night.

Round Two between North and the Bison, who will likely battle Lexington for second in the league, is set for Feb. 2 in High Point.

North, by the way, is ranked No.1 among the state’s 2A teams in the new ihigh.com poll. Northwood is No. 2.

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WOUNDED KNEE: The injury to Jenny Reilly’s left knee is worse than first thought, according to coach Jennifer Shoaf.

It was reported earlier that Salisbury’s Reilly tore the medial collateral ligament in the Hornets’ win over Davie County. But now doctors have found a slight tear in her anterior cruciate ligament as well.

She has gone to therapy once and sat out Friday’s 79-25 pasting at the hands of Ledford. But Shoaf is expecting the best.

“They have fitted her with a brace and we’re hoping for next Friday,” Shoaf said of Reilly’s return.

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TAKING CHARGE: The mythical “Shane Battier Award” for taking the most charges has to go to East’s Matt Belk, who gave up his body virtually every time a Central Cabarrus player drove the lane in the Vikings’ 80-72 victory over the Mustang boys on Friday.

Belk was rewarded for his sacrifice of life and limb with two charging calls.

Runner-up for the “Battier”? Has to be South’s Nathan “The Pest” Kennedy. Kennedy is involved in at least five collisions a game, but usually it’s with guards dribbling the ball on the perimeter. Belk’s charge-taking is scarier, because it comes against larger players going to the basket with a full head of steam.

Honorable mention: Belk’s teammate Mark Misenheimer, a football player who doesn’t mind throwing his body around.

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MILLER TIME: Justin Miller’s 28 points against Central on Friday moved him past Kevin Abel, one of the stars of East’s last Sam Moir Christmas Classic championship team in 1975, on the Mustangs’ all-time scoring list. Miller’s now ninth in Mustang history with 787 points. He’ll soon move past William Ross, who scored 818 in a career that ended in 1987, and baseball legend David Trexler, who scored 827 in a career that ended in 1995.

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MORE MILLER: Miller is currently averaging 18.7 ppg and is one of several players in the hunt for the county scoring title.

The last Mustang to average that many points was another athlete best known for baseball — current Catawba first baseman Travis Goins. Goins scored at a 21.3 clip in 1996 on his way to a 1,212-point career, most prolific in East history.

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SCADS OF SCORERS: East’s boys have a tremendous senior class, which explains why the Mustangs have had a shot at winning the majority of their games this year.

In addition to Miller, Adam Cornelius (579 career points) and Taylor Weber (564) will finish among the school’s all-time top 15 scorers. Cornelius and Weber could pass football hero Johnny Yarbrough (No. 19), who scored 586 points in a career that ended in 1971, in East’s game at Piedmont tomorrow night.

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IN LIKE FLYNN: No coach likes to come up on the short end, but East coach Mark Flynn’s mood was considerably more upbeat on Friday, when his team played well at Central, than on Wednesday when it had a forgettable night against A.L. Brown.

“We competed hard,” said Flynn. “Last time we came to Central, they just destroyed us.”

That “last time” was 72-45.

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POINT BREAK: East put up its third highest point total (72) of the season in the loss to Central and its 33-point fourth quarter had to be its top eight-minute explosion of the young century. It was the most points East has scored this season and still lost.

Friday’s game marked the third time East has surrendered 80 and the first time it’s done so in its last 12 games. The last time was when Central beat East 84-65 in Granite Quarry to open SPC warfare.

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Ronnie Gallagher and Mike London contributed to the notebook