West goes slow?

OLIN — Dean Smith came up with the idea of having his team huddle together before free throws many years ago, and the practice still applies.

Chris Webber and his Fab Five teammates from Michigan introduced black socks and baggy shorts, which are still present in today’s game.

North Iredell coach Kent Daniels might have become the next basketball trend setter, albeit on a much more local level.

Daniels didn’t go punch for punch with West Rowan on Tuesday night. Instead, he forced the Falcons to chase the Raiders all over the ring and into the corners until the final bell rang.

And although the Falcons still won by 24 points, they sure didn’t look comfortable doing it.

“I can’t fault a man for that,”West Rowan coach Mike Gurley said of Daniels’ strategy. “I loved the way his kids played, you could tell how well-coached they are because they did what the coach asked them to do.”

Said Daniels, “It’s not that we were trying to keep the game close or keep them from scoring 100 points. That wasn’t the object. The object was to give us a chance to win.”

The Raiders, a team in the bottom half of the NPCstandings, came closer than any Falcon opponent to date.

So that begs the questions: Will other teams follow Daniels’ lead? And will it work?

Gurley, whose Falcons face A.L. Brown tonight, probably won’t see the Wonders adopt a similar strategy.

But surely someone eventually will.

“There’s a good chance they will,”he said.“There’s a real good chance they will.”

Just how West will handle such a ploy in the future remains to be seen. But its performance on Tuesday showed that a slowed-down style probably won’t lead to the fall of the Falcon Empire.

North Iredell point guard Duran Scott ran much of the clock out with his own dribbling on the offensive end, but the Falcons chased him and his Raider teammates all over the court.

If Gurley’s guys got tired, he found fresh replacements to take over. By game’s end, the Falcons had forced 25 turnovers in a 51-27 victory.

West Rowan had not won a game with such a low scoring output since a 51-46 decision over High Point Andrews in the 1999 sectionals.

The Falcons are used to scoring in bunches this season, but they can hang their hat on their defense.

“With this group, I just said, ‘Go play defense,’ ”Gurley said. “It was an entire game of shell drill: jump to the ball, deny the wings, be ready to help, get on the ball side.

“It was good for us. It made us play defense.”

The Falcons also found a way to get their offense going, even if that meant taking a step back before taking two more forward.

West held a slim 10-point lead when it went to its own delay game to begin the fourth quarter. But when T.J. Gaither finally slashed to the basket to send the offense in motion, the Raiders were doomed.

The Falcons forced four North turnovers in the final 3:38 and outscored the Raiders 15-2 during that stretch.

Gurley’s counterpunch played into North’s hands at first. But when West decided to picked up the pace, the Raiders were forced to comply.

“I was just trying to get the kids to be very patient and not commit turnovers,”Daniels said. “Still, we committed too many turnovers at key times.”

Critics have been looking for a chink in West Rowan’s armor, and there’s a chance they have found one.

But until the Falcons come close to losing a game, their confidence will remain at a high level.

“It could slow us down a little bit, but I think we can play at that pace,”West center Donte Minter said matter of factly.

But can a team using that style of play actually beat the Falcons?

“I don’t think so,”he added.

n

Contact Bret Strelow at 704-797-4258 or bstrelow@salisburypost.com .