LANDIS—Andrew Morgan owned the hot hand for South Rowan on Wednesday, so the Raiders gave him the ball trailing by a point with seconds to play.
The junior left-hander galloped the length of the court and got exactly what he wanted: an open lane to the hoop. He skied to the basket, poised to hit the game-winning layup — and the long arm of Justin Robinson came out of nowhere to knock the shot out of bounds.
“I knew he was on the other side of the block and I saw him coming over, but I figured Icould get it high enough to get it over his hand,”said Morgan of the block that saved a 55-54 victory for A.L. Brown. “He got it before Icould let it go.”
The Raiders couldn’t do anything with the final 1.8 seconds on the clock, handing the Wonders (12-3) the victory in the nonconference matchup.
“We were going to go hard to the basket. Seven seconds is a lot of time,”Raiders head coach John Davis said. “Give ’em credit:They made the stop on the last play, we didn’t make the basket.”
The Raiders (9-9) appeared to have the back-and-forth game in hand. Gerry Propst converted a three-point play with 59.6 seconds to play to open the Raider lead to 52-47.
Josh Barrier, who scored just five points but grabbed 14 rebounds, pulled the Wonders within 52-49 on a putback before the Raiders split a pair of free throws to make it 53-49.
Brandon Thomas took advantage of an iffy block/charge call to make a free throw and Terry Collins followed with a steal and layup that trimmed it to 53-52. South made just one of its next four free throws, and the Wonders got the game-winner with 6.7 seconds to go when Thomas tipped in a missed shot and got fouled.
“We’re just lucky Brandon got that rebound and it fell in,”Wonders head coach Shelwyn Klutz said. “Josh Barrier and Justin did a great job rebounding. The rebounding allowed us to stay in the game.”
A pair of Raiders helped South stay in contention. Morgan, who missed three conference games with a twisted ankle, entered the game late in the first quarter and scored 16 straight points. He nailed six shots in a row, including four from long range.
“Last night I felt my shot coming back and today at shoot-arounds I was hitting everything, so my shot’s coming back around,”Morgan said.
Point guard David Lane took over in the third quarter, scoring South’s final 12 points of the period on four shots from the 3-point arc. Lane’s final 3-pointer before the buzzer came with Klutz shouting “Get out there!” to his players.
“I was hot in the first half and then in the third quarter David started feeling it,”Morgan said. “I know that when I’m feeling it, David’s going to do everything he can to get the ball in my hands, so as soon as David starts feeling it I’m going to do the same thing.”
Davis was pleased his two guards were hot, but missed the inside production South usually shows. The Raider post players combined for 11 points.
“Those kids shot the ball well, but we didn’t get much inside,”Davis said. “We didn’t have any problem getting looks at the basket. It was just execution, putting the ball in the hole.”
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NOTES:South players, fans and coaches got a taste of North Piedmont Conference madness. The quadrupleheader of JV and varsity games saw the varsity girls start at 7 p.m. and the boys at 8:55. The long night ended at 10:20.
A.L. BROWN (55) — Blackmon 5, Collins 2, Patterson 6, Thomas 16, Ardrey 3, Allison 6, Miller 2, Graham 2, Robinson 6, Abercrombie 2, Barrier 5, Reeves, Powell.
SOUTHROWAN (54) — Propst 5, Lane 13, Morgan 22, Hornbeak 3, Corriher 6, Patterson 4, Mack 1, Overcash.
A.L. Brown 9 14 12 19 — 55
South Rowan 8 14 17 15 — 54
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