Prep Basketball: North Rowan boys 75, Gray Stone 19

By Mike London

mlondon@salisburypost.com

MISENHEIMER — North Rowan’s boys made it three straight YVC championships by overwhelming Gray Stone 75-19.

North has fielded great teams, but this is the first time the program has claimed three straight league titles. The Cavaliers clinched a share of the crown Tuesday. Barring incredible events, they’ll claim an outright title at North Moore on Friday.

“I think any time you accomplish something that’s never been done before, you’re blessed,” North coach Andrew Mitchell said. “But we need to stay very humble and remember that we can do more than win a conference championship.”

Michael Connor scored 15 points, 11 in one furious burst to open the second half, while Oshon West paced the defense with eight steals.

North (19-3, 14-1) obviously was still feeling the sting of Friday’s loss at South Davidson that denied the Cavs a perfect YVC season.

“On film, we saw we played the worst defense we played all year,” Mitchell said. “We weren’t hawking the ball and we didn’t playing good help defense. We know we’ve got to get to back to playing defense the way we were earlier in the season. We stressed doing that tonight.”

North played defense so tenaciously it very nearly set a school record against a Gray Stone squad that is down to eight healthy bodies. North’s school mark for fewest points allowed came last season in a 75-18 trampling of Chatham Central.

Gray Stone barely managed to avoid history when Hamilton Deese rumbled for a bucket — and the Knights’ 18th and 19th points — with 1:13 left in the game.

Gray Stone’s score by quarters looked like football — or tennis. It was 6-4-6-3.

“We’ve got a really big chip on our shoulders now,” West said. “We needed to bounce back, and I feel good about how we played.”

Gray Stone (1-18, 1-14) managed three field goals in the first quarter, but it trailed 18-6 after Malik Fork dunked a lob from Terrese Barber to open the second period.

A 3-pointer by backup guard Raheem Kelly and a three-point play by reserve big man Tydler Watlington pushed the score to 24-6, and the rout was officially on.

“They’re very good,” Gray Stone coach Myron Harrington said. “They’re tall, and they’re athletic. The deck was kind of stacked against us, but I thought we stayed positive and competed.”

It was 34-10 at halftime.

North’s starters, knowing their night would be short, turned it on to open the second half. West had five steals in a stretch of three minutes, and Connor and Michael Bowman (11 points) kept finishing fastbreak opportunities.

“We came here tonight to play hard defense and to try to force a lot of turnovers,” Bowman said. “We accomplished that.”

Mitchell said North may be without stellar guard Jordan Kimber the rest of the way, but the Cavs, who dropped to seventh in this week’s 1A poll, still are formidable.

“We know we can score,” Mitchell said. “I told the guys at halftime that they could hold this team under 20 points if they played defense. They met that goal, and when you’re meeting goals, it’s a good sign.”

NORTH ROWAN (75) — Connor 15, Bowman 11, Givens 9, Kelly 8, Ford 8, Watlington 5, West 4, Barber 4, Holshouser 4, Chambers 4, Ellis 3, Lemmon.

GRAY STONE (19) — Wang 7, Clontz 5, Deese 4, Jennings 2, Almond 1, Wagner, Huckabee, Lykins.

N. Rowan 16 18 21 20 — 75

G. Stone 6 4 6 3 — 19