South boys end with near-miss

CLEMMONS—Monday night’s CPC Tournament matchup between South Rowan and North Davidson ended at the only place it could.

The foul line.

After shooting 36 foul shots, North Davidson got a game-winning jumper from the free-throw line with seven seconds to go. The clutch shot from junior Chris Noble propelled North to a 54-52 victory and a spot in Wednesday’s semifinal against top seed West Forsyth.

The basket ended South’s season at 12-13 overall after a 4-6 run through the tough 4ACentral Piedmont Conference’s regular season. When the Raiders finally emerged from tourney host West Forsyth’s locker room, there wasn’t a dry eye to be found.

“We were just reminiscing about some of the seniors’ careers here, how much they’ve meant to this program, how it’s grown over the last couple seasons,”Raider junior Andrew Morgan said. “They kind of set the example for us. We’re just trying to follow in their footsteps.”

Led by senior big man Joel Patterson, who was battling illness and the Black Knights all at the same time, South slugged its way through a game that saw 15 lead changes and eight ties. In the regular-season meetings, South won 83-79 in three overtimes, then escaped North (13-11, 2-8) with a 57-54 victory.

The biggest lead of the night for either team was five points:10-5 South and 20-15 North.

Every time the Knights made a run, South answered. Senior Tre Hornbeak (11 points)scored five straight before halftime to knot the score at 22-all. Patterson (12 points, six rebounds) drilled four second-half jumpers. Ryan Keener and Morgan (six points, 10 boards) nailed 3-pointers.

But every time the Raiders threatened to pull away, early foul trouble came back to haunt them. Quick reach-ins, holds and other ticky-tack calls mounted in the first half, putting North in the bonus with 2:15 to play in the first quarter.

It was worse in the second half. The Knights reached the one-and-one onHornbeak’s technical — and fifth personal — for jawing with North’s Thomas Roach with 3:03 to go in the third quarter.

North made 10 of 12 free throws in the fourth quarter alone and finished 24-for-36. South went 11-for-18.

“You wonder about that a little bit, but you’ve got to adjust to a game the way the officials are calling it,”South head coach John Davis said.

The Raiders grabbed their final lead at 50-48 when Graham Corriher (eight points, 10 rebounds) drained a 3 off an inbounds play at the 4:20 mark. North’s Carlos Scott tied it with a steal and layup, and four foul shots later the score stood 52-52 with 2:20 to play.

That’s when North started playing catch around the perimeter. The Knights had tried the stall in the triple-OT game at South —and lost. They were ready to try it again, though.

“We hadn’t been shooting the ball real well from outside. I was scared if I let us keep playing, we’d take some more 3sI didn’t want us taking,”North head coach Fredrick Hurt said. “So we thought we’d hold it as long as they would let us.”

TheRaiders allowed it until a half-minute remained, then applied pressure. North called timeout with 20 seconds left.

“That helped us,”Davis said. “We’re in foul trouble. We figured play it down to the last 30 seconds, get a defensive stop, bring the ball down the court and get a shot to win the game. They hit their shot.”

The Knights played for a good shot and got one when Noble broke away for an open look from the foul line that rattled home. South tried to inbound the ball and call a timeout near midcourt, but the officials ruled the ball put on the baseline, and with four seconds showing after the timeout, the Raiders ran out of time.

“Those seniors have put in four hard years of basketball, a lot of work to become a pretty good basketball team,”Davis said. “The first part of the year, most people with the guys we lost last year thought we’d win two, three games. Damn if we didn’t win 12.”

But a lucky 13 was not to be.

NORTH DAVIDSON (54) — Noble 15, Scott 2,
McKenzie 1, Koonts 2, Tuberville 8, Walmsley 3, Roach 8, Wilkes 11, Banner 4, Owens, Jarvis.

SOUTHROWAN (52) — Propst 4, Lane 5, Morgan 6, Hornbeak 11, Thomas 1, Corriher 8, Overcash 1,
Patterson 12, Keener 4, Terry, Biles, Mack.

North Davidson 9 13 18 14 — 54

South Rowan 10 12 16 14 — 52

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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4256 or shanf@salisburypost.com .