MOUNT ULLA — At least East Rowan boys coach Derek Kurnitsky didn’t carry any might-have-beens and woulda-coulda-shouldas home with him on Friday night. This time he could sleep well.
After a series of painful, stinging, last-second defeats, Kurnitsky’s Mustangs got their headbands handed to them by powerhouse West Rowan. There was zero doubt about nationally ranked and unbeaten West’s emphatic 109-59 3A North Piedmont Conference victory.
West is a certified heavyweight, while East, no matter how hard it plays and no matter how hard first-year guy Kurnitsky coaches, looks like wait-til-next-year at this point.
East had no answers for West giant Donte Minter (28 points, 24 in the first half) or West’s dynamic defense.
“I don’t think we played bad ball at all,” said Kurnitsky. “I mean, that’s all we’ve got.
“West is just good. They’re all they’re cooked up to be. I’ve seen great teams like R.J. Reynolds, Oak Hill, and Miami High when I coached in Florida. West is as good as any of ’em.”
To the shock of a capacity crowd, it was East that broke on top. The Mustangs actually led 10-4 after two early 3s by Caleb Miller and an Eric Taylor steal.
“I don’t think it was a case of us starting slow,” said West coach Mike Gurley. “East was just doing a good job of executing their game plan.”
But with 2:30 remaining in the first quarter, Phillip Williams sailed in for the Falcons’ first dunk, and that seemed to trigger an explosion.
“Yeah, Phil’s dunk, that’s what got us going,” said Falcon forward Junior Hairston.
After that jam, Brian Avery nailed a couple of jumpers to loosen up East’s defense. Then, it was an avalanche. West scored 79 — count ’em, 79 — points over the next 17 minutes.
“We just couldn’t stop them,” said Kurnitsky. “They were a buzzsaw. It was like they had five McDonald’s All-Americans out there against five kids that eat at McDonald’s. Their defense was so tenacious. They were like a bunch of octopuses. I’ve got young guards, and they went after them.”
West (15-0, 4-0) shot 72 percent in the second quarter and improved that to 76 percent in the third.
That was a product of two things. Unselfishness, which led to good shots. And a flurry of East turnovers — the Mustangs finished with 26 — that led to dunks and layups.
The pace — which was breakneck — was also to West’s liking. They scored 35 points in the second quarter, another 30 in the third.
“We accomplished our goals,” said Hairston. “We wanted to play good defense and keep the intensity up.”
Things would not have gotten quite so brutal for East (2-13, 0-4) had its best player, 6-foot-3 post man Matt Belk, not gone down with an ankle injury midway through the second quarter.
With Belk sidelined and with starting forward Adam Shepherd already suspended because of an altercation in Tuesday’s game with A.L. Brown, Kurnitsky didn’t have a single senior in uniform. That was not a good situation against a very experienced bunch of Falcons.
“It was a baptism of fire for us with no seniors,” said Kurnitsky. “But I don’t think something like this will ever happen to us again.”
Actually, similar things have happened before in this lopsided series. West has beaten East 30 straight times. Two of those losses were worse than last night’s 50-point margin.
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NOTES:There were two amazing buckets. East’s Derek Talbert tossed in a shot while lying on the floor. But that was more than countered by Williams, who tossed a pass off the board to himself, and then slammed it home.
EAST ROWAN (59) — Miller 14, Abel 11, Talbert 8, Whitley 8, Taylor 8, Belk 6, Cauble 4, Shipp, Harwood.
WEST ROWAN (109) — Minter 28, Avery 12, Everhart 11, P.Williams 10, Hairston 9, Gaither 8, Johnson 7, Patterson 6, J.Williams 6, Ramsey 5, White 4, Scearce 2, Hartsell 1.
East Rowan 16 11 8 24 — 59
West Rowan 21 35 30 23 — 109
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