BY ED DUPREE
SALISBURY POST

LEXINGTON — Salisbury coach Drew Mathews wasn’t deceived by Lexington’s 8-10 record coming into last night’s basketball game.He knew what to expect.

The 2A Central Carolina Conference’s third-place team blitzed the young Salisbury Hornets 90-45.

“Lexington has a great basketball team,” said Mathews. “They’re one of the most athletic, competitive teams in the league, and they’re real scary. Tonight, in the first half, they did everything right from the inside game to the outside game and they played great defense.

“On the flip side, my kids did not come to play. They did not come to be aggressive and attack and work hard. I’m disappointed in that,”

Lexington upped its CCC record to 6-2. Salisbury fell to 3-14 and 1-7.

Mathews said prior to the contest that coach Don Corry’s Yellow Jackets were a team to watch in the postseason.

“I think they’re one of the best teams in the area other than North Rowan (unbeaten CCC leader). Whoever catches them in the playoffs is going to catch one heck of a team. They have all the pieces to be state championship potential. He (Corry) has done a good job with this group, and my hats off to them,” said the Salisbury coach.

Lexington guard Marquis Carroll came out on fire, hitting his first six shots — five 3-pointers and a slam dunk — and finished with a game-high 21 points.

“Boy! He was on,” said Corry. “The last three ballgames now he’s started getting his shot back. At the first of the season he was doing that, then he kind of went in a slump, then he was sick and just couldn’t find himself. This is the right time for him to come back.”

Carroll, who missed his last five shots to finish 6-for-11 on field goals, had three teammates in double figures — StevenMcNeair with 14, Michael Hogan with 13 and Corry Holt with 12.

“We’re really getting there. We’re playing our brand of basketball,” said Corry, who has a relatively young team with two sophomore starters, the 6-foot-4 Holt and Brian Saunders. “It used to be that we’d go down and let teams dictate what was going to happen.Now we’re not. We’re saying you’ve got to play with us. The kids are feeling good about themselves. I think they’re playing a lot better team ball. We’re doing the right things. If we keep doing that, we’re going to be a tough team to beat.”

Corry pointed out that the Jackets’ 9-10 mark is misleading because of a tough schedule.

“We’ve played some heavyweights — Davie County twice, HighPoint Andrews twice, Thomasville twice and Asheboro. We were in the ballgame with every one of them,” he said.

Randall Jones, who did not start, led Salisbury with 17 points. He was 7-for-21 from the floor.

n

NOTES: Hogan had 10 rebounds to lead Lexington to a 48-40 advantage on the boards. Carroll and Holt added nine and seven rebounds, respectively. Holt also blocked five shots. ... Lexington made 10 3-pointers. ... Salisbury’s Taylor Knauf scrapped for six rebounds and four steals. ... Salisbury fouls led to a lot of Lexington trips to the free throw line, where the Jackets went 24-for-43. ... Salisbury got off an amazing 82 shots, hitting 19 of them (23.2 percent). Lexington was 28-for-60(46.7 percent). ... The Hornets had 22 turnovers to 23 for the home team. ... McNeair had five steals and four assists for the winners. ... Salisbury travels to East Davidson on Tuesday, while Lexington visits North Rowan. The Jackets lost to North in a 72-71 thriller at Lexington on Jan. 10.

SALISBURY (45) — Campbell, Conners 6, Knauf 2, Blount 1, Bruce 5, Geter 4, Jones 17, Roten 4, Fields 2, Bost, Davis 4.

LEXINGTON (90) — Hogan 13, Saunders 6, Holt 12, Ellison 5, Carroll 21, Cobbs 7, Shaw 3, McNeair 14, White 6, McCown 3, Poole, Gibson.

Salisbury 9 7 14 15 — 45

Lexington 23 19 26 22 — 90