GRANITEQUARRY— Twelve-game losing streaks aren’t fun. But surrendering back-to-back 100-point games? That’s a whole other matter entirely.
“Hey, we’re getting better,”a subdued Derek Kurnitsky managed to joke after his team followed up Friday’s 109-59 defeat at West Rowan with a 100-72 home loss to Statesville on Tuesday.
That one statement was the only moment of humor the normally upbeat coach found on this long night, though.
“We shouldn’t have done this. We shouldn’t have given up 100,”Kurnitsky said. “I know they made a lot of shots, but we played terrible defense.”
Statesville (9-9 overall, 5-2 North Piedmont Conference) shot 53 percent for the game, made nine 3-pointers and committed just seven turnovers.
Quick, burly guard Arnold Graham paced all scorers with 26 points, including a 13-point first quarter in which he buried 5 of 6 shots. Cam Simpson added 18 and post players Raji Johnson (15) and Adib El-Amin (10) did the job down low.
“It really got discouraging,”said Mustang Kenny Abel, who finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds. “They hit everything. It’s like everybody hits against us.”
The Hounds forced Kurnitsky to burn a pair of timeouts in the first quarter as East managed a pair of ties at 5-5 and 7-7, but never led. Graham nailed two straight jumpers, Deangelo Savoy followed with a 3 and Simpson tallied six straight points for a 21-11 margin.
During East’s second timeout, Kurnitsky looked up at the scoreboard and exclaimed to his team, “We’re going to give up 150 points!”
Statesville ended the quarter ahead 32-16 after making 11 of 17 field goals and 5 of 10 shots from long range. The second quarter didn’t get much better. Johnson caught fire and made all four of his shot attempts as the Hounds led 60-33 at the break.
“There’s not much we can do on a night like this,”Kurnitsky said. “They made everything, especially in that first half.”
Playing without seniors Matt Belk and Adam Shepherd didn’t help East, which dropped to 2-15 overall and 0-6 in the league. Belk, the team’s leading scorer, appeared sparingly on his bad knee and left the game twice, the second time with a severe limp.
Shepherd was out for the second night after his two-game suspension stemming from last week’s altercation against A.L. Brown.
The highlight for East was backup guard Santo Shipp, who came in with six career points and scored 13 for the game. Shipp was 5-for-8 from the field and bombed a 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer —although his little jig and look at the Statesville bench following the shot that narrowed the lead from 30 to 27 probably didn’t make the Hounds too unhappy about hitting 100.
“I don’t think it’s really wearing on us,”Abel said of the long streak. “We’re trying to come together more as a team. I think it’s going to stop real soon.”
NOTES:Statesville’s JV teams got lost on the way to East, bumping the varsity girls game back to a 7 p.m. start. The boys game didn’t end until 9:50 in the NPC’s new quadrupleheader format this year.
STATESVILLE (100) — Sprinkle 5, Savoy 9, Ja.Brawley 3, Simpson 18, Ju.Brawley 7, Graham 26, Nesbit 4, El-Amin 10, McGee 1, Neal 2, Johnson 15, McClelland, Thomas.
EASTROWAN (72) — Shipp 13, Talbert 9, Taylor 7, Miller 11, Whitley 9, Abel 11, Cauble 12, Harwood, Belk.
Statesville 32 28 15 25 — 100
East Rowan 16 17 18 21 — 72
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