Memories of 1999 won’t die for West Rowan

CHAPEL HILL — West Rowan’s Donte Minter calls it “déja vu all over again.” And that’s accurate.

Three seasons back the Falcons waded through T.C. Roberson to survive the Western Regional finals.

This season they did exactly the same thing.

And now that the Falcons have earned a date in the Dean Smith Center this Saturday night at 9, the school waiting for them is Parkland, the same bunch that beat them in the 3A finals in 1999.

Of course, in high school ball rosters turn over every few years. So while coach Mike Gurley’s West team faces the same school, it obviously isn’t facing the same people.

It is, however, facing the same coach (Mike Pennington) and the same we’re-in-your-face-for-32 minutes system. And once again, Pennington is blessed with at least two Division I players.

While the head coaches remain the same, only one player who ventured out on the blue floor on March 13, 1999, is still around. You know him. His name is Donte Minter.

Minter began that first scrap with Parkland as a scared freshman. Several elbows, hard stares and big-time dunks later, he ended it as a man. On a night when the Falcons shot 38.9 percent, Minter was 7-for-11 from the field, scored 17 points and grabbed six boards in 19 minutes.

“I remember being real nervous at the beginning,” said Minter. “Then I blanked out the crowd and started playing.

“What do I remember about Parkland? I remember they were a great team and brought a whole lot of intensity.”

West’s defensive stopper Horatio Everhart was also a freshman in ’99. The jayvee star was supposed to dress with the varsity boys on that magical night at the Smith Center, but made a last-minute youthful mistake and didn’t get to.

“I think that misfortune will provide some pretty good incentive for Horatio now,” said Gurley.

Everhart agrees. “I remember that disappointment,” he said. “I’m going out there Saturday and play my hardest to make up for it. I’m ready to be a senior leader.”

Other current Falcons were faces in the crowd in ’99.

The 6-foot-6 Williams twins, Jason and Phillip, were in the Smith Center cheering on older brother Frankie, West’s starting center.

“I remember some embarrassing parts,” said Jason. “I remember (West guard) Terris (Sifford) getting dunked on. We’re kinda looking at this game as revenge for Frankie. He’ll be there.”

“What I remember is how good Parkland was,” added Phillip. “West made a comeback and got close, but we couldn’t bring that championship back. I’ve thought a lot about what would happen if I had a chance to go back there. I’m sure Parkland thinks beating West Rowan is nothing.”

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That ’99 title game is mostly a blur to Gurley.

Oh, he recalls that ugly final score: Parkland 101, West 83. It was the only time in Gurley’s 147 games as head man that the Falcons have yielded 100. In fact, that game’s one of only two times in Falcon history that an opponent has run up a hundred. Concord beat the Falcons 101-90 in 1990.

“What I remember is one very mean Parkland run in the second quarter,” said Gurley. “I shoulda used up all five of my timeouts at that moment.”

West fans still agonize over that ’99 game, but shouldn’t. Parkland, which finished 29-1, was simply the better, more athletic team on that night.

Some of those 28-3 Falcons played well. Scooter Sherrill shot only 10-for-27, but scored 33 points. High-wire act Tommy Lee bounced off the bench for 17 points in 17 minutes. And while everyone around him was turning the ball over, current Falcons assistant Josh Avery didn’t. He had one miscue in 21 solid minutes.

The Mustangs won because they slaughtered the Falcons on the boards 53-32. They shot 58.1 percent for the game and 61.1 percent in the second half because they got point-blank shots off West turnovers.

Parkland’s Cliff Crawford, now Sherrill’s N.C. State teammate, scored 20, but the story was 6-5 Danny Gathings, who scored 36 points, yanked down 12 rebounds and leaped over Falcons like he was employing a trampoline.

Gathings, who looked like the second coming of David Thompson, hasn’t made a college impact yet. After a year of prep school, he enrolled at Virginia Tech and played well for a semester. But he’s no longer a Hokie. Pennington says Gathings has now transferred to High Point University to be closer to his son.

“Danny is going to set that league (Big South) on its ear next year,” Pennington predicted.

He probably will. But West players and fans don’t give a hoot if Gathings shines at Virginia Tech or at High Point or at Gonzaga. Just so long as he’s not on the Dean Dome floor this Saturday.

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Sometimes people approach Pennington and want to discuss that “easy” 3A state championship his Mustangs brought home in 1999. Pennington smiles and chuckles. He doesn’t remember his city’s first state title in 25 years quite that way.

“I remember West jumping on us early,” said Pennington. “Scooter hit two NBA 3s off the bat. Then he has this reverse dunk. Then they lob to Scooter for another dunk. It’s a play we knew was coming and we’d worked on it. But there was still nothing we could do to stop it.”

Pennington also remembers his team’s famous second-quarter run for a 15-point lead at half. Then he remembers weathering a fierce West rally.

“The final score doesn’t tell the story at all,” he said. “That doesn’t indicate what kind of game it was.”

But that was then, this is now. West (29-0) and Parkland (21-9) stare at one other again three years later, but this time the much taller Falcons are favored.

“The Smith Center’s a great setting for a great game,” said Phillip Williams. “It would be the most fun thing to get that ring, get those medals and hang that big state championship picture out in front of our gym.”

That bigger-than-life photo would serve as a lasting legacy for Rowan’s first unbeaten squad since coach Bobby Pharr’s Kenny Holt-led Hornets went 26-0 in 1969-1970.

It would also mean payback for ’99.

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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com .