Prep Basketball: West Rowan 60, West Iredell 44: Falcons finish second in NPC

By Jordan Honeycutt

sports@salisburypost.com

STATESVILLE — It’s OK Keshun, I’ve got this one.

That had to be what West Rowan forward Jarvis Morgan told his star point guard before Wednesday’s 60-44 win over West Iredell.

Morgan put up 19 points and collected countless huge rebounds as the Warriors had no answer for No. 22.

Sherrill was coming off of a career-high 41 point outburst, but was held to a ho-hum 15 in this one.

“It is great to go out on my last regular-season game as a senior this way,” Morgan said. “Playing with a point guard like Keshun, you know that teams are going to double or key on him and you have to be ready to step up and tonight I did that.”

Maurice Warren (8 poinmts) and Daisean Reddick (7 points) also contributed largely in the win.

“This was the best we have played as a team in a while,” West Rowan coach Mike Gurley said. “Tonight’s win was a total team effort, spearheaded by our seniors and I couldn’t be more proud because when you come to play at West Iredell, you know you are usually in for a dogfight.”

The Warriors tried to counter Morgan and Sherrill with their own pair of stars in Jalen Gray and C.J. Gibbs.

The duo had 16 apiece, but received little assistance and couldn’t overcome a double-digit second half deficit.

The Falcons mixed up their offensive attack and showcased their full reportoire of scoring plays.

They started out matching the Warriors in a game of “I’ll see your three and raise you one,” and then began racing out on fast breaks for layups in the second half.

“I think that running and getting easy buckets always reverts back to how well you play you defense,” Gurley said.

“Our guys made great stops and then they got rewarded by running the floor and getting those great looks.”

West Iredell coach Benjamin Johnson knew when he saw the man-to-man matchups his team engaged in, that they were in for trouble.

“I knew it man and we got completely sucked in to playing their style of game and we cannot win that way,” Johnson said. “Limiting Keshun isn’t enough. You have to be able to stop everybody on their team and tonight we couldn’t do that and you see what happened.”

Morgan, who had a busy week last week in signing for football with Winston-Salem State, admitted that he has just now gotten back to being 100 percent focused on basketball.

“I got a little off track last week when I signed, but I’m back and ready to finish off this season the right way and help give our seniors something to remember,” Morgan said.

•

NOTES: Gurley will now ready the troops for familiar territory as the Falcons will try to repeat as champions of the North Piedmont Conference for the second straight year.

WEST ROWAN (60) — J.Morgan 19, Sherrill 15, Warren 8, Reddick 7, T.Morgan 6, Martin 3, Tucker 2, Cuthbertson, Gallagher, Hassard.

WEST IREDELL (44) — Gibbs 16, J.Gray 16, Robinson 6, DJ Gray 2, Phifer 2, Summers 2, Boggs, Davidson, Ellis.

W. Rowan 15 18 16 11 — 60

W. Iredell 17 09 10 08 — 44