KANNAPOLIS — Lots of people have offered the opinion that West Rowan’s boys are twice as good as anyone else in the area this season.
A.L. Brown guard Brandon Thomas says they’re way, way off.
“Hey, there 10 times better,” said Thomas, who averages 20 ppg, but was held to 11 by the Falcons.
“You try harder against West than against anyone, but they’re just so tall. It’s hard to get a shot and it’s only going to be one shot. You can forget about the rebound. That’s the best team I’ve ever seen or played against.”
Of course, that scouting report on the Falcons has been circulating for a while now. Friday night’s 75-39 destruction of A.L. Brown in historic Bullock Gym just reinforced it a little.
The final margin in the 3A North Piedmont Conference no-contest was 36, but it wasn’t even that close. West (16-0, 6-0) led by 46 with seven minutes left to play before coach Mike Gurley went as far down his bench as he could go.
Julius Erving came to Bullock in an ABA exhibition game thirty-odd years ago. That’s probably the last time anyone shook the rim as often as Falcon studs Donte Minter (17 points), Phillip Williams (10 points) and Junior Hairston did last night.
Offensively, West was good — shooting 50 percent in the first half, when it still mattered.
Defensively, it was on another planet.
“Their defense is why West is the No. 1 team in the state,” said Wonder coach Shelwyn Klutz. “Those guys played out of their minds on defense. We got very few open shots. The ones we got, we didn’t knock down.”
That’s putting it mildly.
The Wonders have two pretty decent 6-foot-6 guys in Justin Robinson and Josh Barrier. Both were held scoreless in the first half, and Barrier got two quick fouls trying to deal with the 6-8 Minter.
The Wonders (12-4, 3-3) also have solid guards in Thomas and Timmy Allison. That pair was almost completely silenced by quick Falcon guards Horatio Everhart, T.J. Gaither and Brian Avery.
West’s defensive intensity was so overwhelming that the Wonders didn’t make a field goal for the game’s first 10 minutes, 29 seconds. When reserve forward Lucious Miller finally stuck in an offensive rebound at the 5:31 mark in the second quarter, fans on both sides felt like cheering.
“Things snowballed on us,” said Klutz, after the Wonders dropped their 15th straight to the Falcons. “We wanted to play slow and be patient. But we got behind early and had to play man-to-man. When that happens against West, you’re in real trouble.”
“We wanted to get off to a good start and we wanted to put our emphasis on playing defense,” said Minter. “We did those things well.”
Needless to say, West coach Mike Gurley found little to complain about.
“There’s a certain way that we want to play basketball, and I thought we played that way tonight,” he said. “What the scoreboard said wasn’t as relevant as us playing hard on every possession. We did a nice job.”
Especially those hounding guards, who totally disrupted the Wonders’ ability to run an offense.
“Kannapolis has quality guards, but we got after them,” said Gurley. “Horatio started it. Defense can be unglamorous, but he took pride in it and the others followed his lead.”
Everhart also found time to play a little offense, splashing four of the Falcons’ seven 3-pointers. The panther-quick senior guard missed just once beyond the arc.
“It was Horatio’s night,” said Minter, who forced the Wonders to sag, freeing up Everhart. “He was on fire.”
“You’ve got your hands full with Minter inside,” said Klutz. “You try to help out on him, and then their other guys go off. They’re as good as advertised, the best in the state. They’re a great basketball team.”
West led 8-0 from the outset after a three-point play inside by Minter and a 3-pointer from Everhart.
After a quarter it was 17-3. A Williams jam made it 40-14 at the half and had the more-than-capacity crowd buzzing. In the first half, the Falcons had as many dunks (3) as the Wonders had field goals.
There was no slacking off by West in the third quarter — a stanza which ended with the Falcons ahead by a staggering 64-19.
The Wonders actually won the fourth quarter 20-11 thanks to a couple of Avery Patterson 3-pointers, but it was far too little, too late.
WEST ROWAN (75) — Minter 17, Everhart 16, P.Williams 10, Gaither 8, Hairston 7, Avery 6, Ramsey 3, J.Williams 3, B.Patterson 2, Hartsell 2, White 1,Scearce, Johnson.
A.L. BROWN (39) — Thomas 11, A.Patterson 7, Miller 6, Ardrey 4, Allison 3, Barrier 3, Abercrombie 2, Robinson 2, Graham 1, Blackmon, Collins, Reeves, Powell.
West Rowan 17 23 24 11 — 75
A.L. Brown 3 11 5 20 — 39
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NOTES: The Wonders need wins against Statesville and Northwest Cabarrus next week to get back in the state playoff picture. ... Wonder football coach Ron Massey watched the carnage and wondered if the Falcons had had any close games. The answer — no. Closest so far was the 16-point win over Central Cabarrus on opening night. They’ve won all league games by at least 17. Mooresville (77-60) came closest.
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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com
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