MOORESVILLE— It didn’t seem possible that only a half-court buzzer beater kept the East Rowan boys from leading Mooresville at halftime.
Four different Mustangs caught fire in stretches of Tuesday night’s first-round 3A North Piedmont Conference Tournament game. East, 2-21 entering the game against 17-5 Mooresville, had the home fans sweating out a 33-32 halftime edge.
“When you’re on a 20-game losing streak, you don’t ever see a team play that hard,”East head coach Derek Kurnitsky said. “Never. Teams with 20-game losing streaks want the year to get over with, and you could tell those kids didn’t want it to get over with.”
East’s year did finally end in a 20th straight defeat when the Blue Devils pulled out an 84-73 victory. The culprit? A four-minute stretch of turnovers that un-did everything the Mustangs worked so hard for.
Mooresville led 43-42 with five minutes to play in the third quarter when star senior Chris Winford (25 points) took over at both ends. He nailed three pull-up jumpers and scored on the break following one of three straight East turnovers.
The 14-2 run pushed the Devils to a 61-51 lead entering the fourth quarter, and East never managed to close within single digits.
The defeat marred great nights from sophomores Kenny Abel and Jason Cauble and juniors Derek Talbert and Brent Whitley.
Cauble opened hot, scoring six first-quarter points to keep East within striking distance —despite Winford’s half-court bomb at the end of the quarter.
Cauble added four more points in the second quarter — he finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds — as Talbert heated up. Talbert (14 points) scored on the break and drained a pair of 3s, helping East pull within one at the break.
“That was the best in a while,”Cauble said. “It was the last game, we just wanted to come out, give it our all and try to play Thursday.
“Coming in we knew we had a chance, but we didn’t think we’d be that close,”Cauble said of the halftime mood. “We were really pumped.”
Whitley didn’t miss a shot in the third quarter. His back-to-back 3-pointers handed East a brief 38-37 lead. He scored 10 of his 15 points in the third quarter before Mooresville pulled away.
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NOTES:Abel got better as the game wore on, putting home 15 of his 22 points in the second half. He added 10 boards. … Abel’s 22 points tied his season high, as did Cauble’s 12. Whitley’s 15 was his top performance since opening night, when he scored 17 in a victory over Jay Robinson. Three games later, on Dec. 7, East won for the final time, 63-58 over Salisbury. … Mooresville will face A.L. Brown at 8 p.m. in Thursday’s semifinal.
east rowan (73) — Lefko 4, Talbert 14, Taylor 2, Whitley 15, Shepherd 4, Abel 22, Cauble 12, Miller.
MOORESVILLE (84) — McConnell 3, Brice 13, Winford 25, Brawley 19, Fish 14, Lackey 2, Locy 8, McCorkle.
East Rowan 8 24 19 22 — 73
Mooresville 17 16 28 23 — 84
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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4256 or shanf@salisburypost.com
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