CHARLOTTE — Harding’s hot streak against West Rowan came crashing to a halt.
The Rams, who were the only team in the 3ASouth Piedmont Conference to beat West twice in the Scooter Sherrill era, bid a fond farewell to junior Donte Minter and company Tuesday night.
Minter scored 34 points, posted 13 rebounds and six blocks to lead the Falcons to a 93-75 victory.
“He killed us, no doubt about it,” sighed Rams head coach Myron Lowery, whose team leaves the SPC after this season due to realignment. “He just feasted down there. When we did have help on the lob, he just muscled in and took charge.”
West improved to 12-4 overall and 8-0 in the SPC after the key road win. Harding (9-7, 7-3) took the Falcons to double-overtime last year before West prevailed and owned home wins over the Falcons in the two seasons prior to that.
This Harding team had no answer for Minter and the rest of West’s inside game.
The 6-foot-7 center with the soft touch dominated with 16 points in the third quarter. West led by just four points at halftime, but the 6-8 Phillip Williams and 6-6 Junior Hairston helped change all that.
Williams scored twice down low before T.J. Gaither’s driving layup — the only basket by a guard in the quarter — made it 48-43 with 6:30 to play. Minter then hit five straight points down low and fed Hairston for a one-step, up-and-over slam in the paint that left the Falcon fans roaring and Lowery calling for time.
Rams Demario Grier and James Barnett nailed three straight 3-pointers to combat the inside threats, but Minter hit three easy field goals in the lane to keep the lead at nine points. Minter closed the quarter with a baseline jumper for his 16th point in the eight minutes, stretching the margin to 68-60.
“I didn’t realize I was going like that,”Minter said. “I just felt the flow. It was real good.”
Any comeback hopes the Rams entertained disappeared early in the fourth afterMinter’s jumper from the free-throw line and four straight from Williams.
Minter polished off his night with an alley-oop layup from Hairston on a 2-on-1 break. The center’s 34 points marked his highest total since 44 on opening night and ended a seven-game streak of scoring in the teens.
“Donte has had some good games, and I’ve told him, ‘You have not played bad games,’ ” Falcons head coach Mike Gurley said. “But Ijust had this feeling tonight. He had this look like, ‘I’m tired of having the games I’ve had the last four or five games. I’m going to make something happen tonight.’ It was neat.”
In addition to his great game, Minter appreciated all the support. Hairston’s 13 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks along with Williams’ 21 points and 10 rebounds completely overwhelmed the smaller Rams.
“It was a great help,”Minter said. “We just played good as a team.”
Guard Horatio Everhart also came up big for West with a season-high 16 points, hitting 5-for-8 from the field and 5-for-5 from the free-throw line.
West led only 21-17 to start the second quarter after Harding closed the opening period on a 10-2 run. The Falcons exploded out to a 32-17 lead in the first four minutes of the second quarter, getting a pullup jumper, driving layup and 3-pointer from Everhart, but West couldn’t pull away. Barnett drained a 3 from the corner and the Rams hit 6-of-6 free throws in the final 32 seconds to make it 42-38 at the half.
“That’s just a credit to the Harding basketball team. Myron’s team consistently plays as hard as any team around here. I don’t care if it’s 4A, 3A, 2A, 12A — it doesn’t matter in Charlotte,” Gurley said. “They were executing their game plan, and that’s where their runs came. Our job was to try to eliminate their game plan, and in the fourth quarter we really got it going.”
West shot well enough in the first half to have a big lead — 17-for-26 on field goals — but committed 15 turnovers to Harding’s five to keep it close. The Ram press did a lot of the damage and led to a few easy scores, but not as many as Lowery would have liked.
“We wanted to up the tempo a little bit, which we did. I was pretty pleased with that at halftime,”Lowery said. “But they scored 53 points in the second half. We just could not get any stops.”
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Notes: TheFalcons won at the free-throw line as well, hitting 21-of-31 to Harding’s 11-of-19. … West has little time to celebrate with a home game against Piedmont tonight and the big rivalry game Friday at East Rowan. … Grier finished with 25 points, hitting six 3-pointers. … Harding and West could meet again in the SPCTournament.
WEST ROWAN (93) — Gaither 2, Mauldin 5, Hairston 13, P.Williams 21, Minter 34, Everhart 16, Pritchard, Trosper 1, Goodnight, High, Barringer 1, Diggs, J.Williams.
HARDING (75) — Harris 2, Grier 25, Barnett 14, Ennis, Barksdale, Chatman 4, Boyce 1, King 16, Crawford 7, Hayes 6.
West Rowan 21 21 26 25 — 93
Harding 17 21 22 22 — 75
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