LANDIS — West Forsyth’s boys basketball team isn’t nearly as intimidating as its scary neighbor R.J. Reynolds, the state’s best team, but give the Titans credit. They take care of business in games they’re expected to win.
Tuesday night, coach David Laton’s Titans beat South Rowan 69-59. That makes 30 straight times West has beaten the Raiders, who last bested them in 1989 when the current South seniors were in kindergarten.
Throw in the fact that West has taken care of Davie County 27 times in a row, and it’s easy to see why the Titans are annually at or near the top of the 4A Central Piedmont Conference. West is currently 17-3 overall, 3-2 in the league. The three losses have come against Reynolds (twice) and Mount Tabor (on a 50-foot buzzer-beater).
“They’re one heck of a basketball team,” said South coach John Davis. “Fundamentally sound and well-coached and they killed us on the boards. They lost by 12 to Reynolds. That tells you what kind of team they have.”
Still, South (10-11, 1-5) seriously believed it could beat the Titans this time. It based that confidence on a respectable 10-point loss at West Forsyth on Jan. 12 and an upset victory on Tuesday at Mount Tabor that snapped a 20-game losing skid against Forsyth County teams.
But South came out and missed 15 of its first 17 field goal attempts and it was easy to see the Raiders were shoveling a hole deep enough to take them to China. South shot 25 percent in that first half and trailed by as many as 12. The Raiders were fortunate to make enough free throws (nine) to crawl to halftime down 28-21.
“We basically gave away 16 minutes of the ballgame,” said a disappointed Davis. “You just can’t do that against a quality team.”
But no one’s ever sure exactly what to expect from these Raiders. South has beaten powerful West Rowan and even took unbeaten North Rowan to overtime. But it’s also split its games with East Rowan, Salisbury and A.L. Brown, all of whom have losing records.
After Davis read the riot act in the locker room, the “good South Rowan” showed up for the third quarter.
“We got our intensity back at halftime,” said Raider guard Nathan Kennedy. “And then we got a little hot.”
Just a little. Kennedy, who averages two points per game, was the catalyst for the most exciting Raider run since last spring’s “Ain’t Hogs Great” 5K race. Kennedy hit two 3-pointers, then found Maurice Torrence with a no-look bounce pass that led to a three-point play inside. The Raiders were cooking.
“Kennedy just played his butt off,” said Davis. “He was set to go. He got on the floor, he made plays and he got us back in the game.”
When Kennedy hit Doug Daugherty for a floating layup with 3:39 left in the third quarter, South was all the way back and led 41-40. But just as suddenly as it appeared, South’s energy vanished. The Raiders didn’t score for seven minutes, as the Titans put together a 10-0 run to take control.
“We lost our juice,” said Kennedy. “I don’t know what happened exactly, but things stopped falling our way.”
Once, West built a working margin, South abandoned its 2-3 zone and tried to match up. But the quick Titan guards sliced the Raiders to bits. C.J. Paul, who finished with 24 points, got to the foul line or set up 6-foot-6 widebody Tim Crews, who poured in 21. West shot an efficient 11-for-13 at the line and 6-for-8 from the field in the fourth quarter, giving the Raiders no chance to catch up, even with Tore’ Girty knocking down a spree of 3s.
“South was coming off a great win over Mount Tabor, so we knew this would be a ballgame,” said Laton. “South’s good — good enough to make some noise in our league before this thing’s over. But our fourth-quarter defense was really good and that was the difference. We could get some stops and they just couldn’t.”
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NOTES: South’s last win against the Titans in ‘89 was by 60-53 and was part of an 8-0 CPC effort by coach Bob Parker’s troops. South was led on that historic night by Brad Brown (Pfeiffer), Larry Lentz (Lenoir-Rhyne) and Chris Beaver. ... Kennedy’s 12-point game was the first double-figure outing of his career. ... South’s Marcus Rucker was held to a season-low of eight points. ... Twenty-five of South’s 30 straight losses to the Titans have been by double digits.
WESTFORSYTH (69) — Dozier 2, Paul 24, Bullis 6, King 2, Crews 21, Miller 4, Mason 8, Caudle 2.
SOUTHROWAN (59) — Girty 9, Rucker 8, Torrence 12, Daugherty 11, Beck 2, Kennedy 12, Diggs 5, Childers, Propst. Hornbeak, Patterson, Biles, Mack, Willett.
West Forsyth 15 13 18 23 — 69
South Rowan 8 13 20 18 — 59
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