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December 10, 1999
Salisbury Post; Rowan County, NC

Local News

Undefeated streaks on the line for West Rowan, Davie

BY RONNIE GALLAGHER
SALISBURY POST

           
Has West Rowan boys basketball coach Mike Gurley relaxed any in the two days since his Falcons somehow pulled off a miraculous 82-81 victory over North Rowan?

Silly question.

Gurley doesn’t seem like the type who wants to relax.

In fact, Thursday night, he sat at home as his young son ate Oreos in his bed, already focused and pumped up for West’s home game with Northwest Cabarrus tonight.

As far as the North game? It was a good win, but North Rowan is not in the 3A South Piedmont Conference. Northwest is.

“What we tried to emphasize was that it was just one step in a long journey. That was not our final destination.”

West improved to 6-0 (2-0 in the SPC)and Gurley’s team has met every challenge so far. He was right when he said in preseason that the Falcons would get everybody’s best shot.

“And it’s still a long season,” he whewed.

The Falcons and the area’s other undefeated team, Davie County (7-0), are preparing for stiff tests tonight. Northwest Cabarrus beat West in the SPCTournament last year, while Davie plays host to Salisbury. The Hornets came up just short against Jim Young’s talented, tall team 90-87 a couple of weeks ago.

Other matchups tonight have Charlotte Harding (3-2, 2-1) traveling to East Rowan (1-5, 1-2) and North (2-2) traveling to South Rowan (2-4).

In private school action, Faith Christian is at North Hills.

n

As much as Gurley would like to put the North game behind him, he has to savor it just a little bit.

Down 11 with two minutes left, he watched his superstar Scooter Sherrill come to life and finish off a 32-point performance by hitting the winning free throws with three seconds left.

“Scooter had that look in his eye that said, ‘I’m going to do it,’” noted Gurley.

He also praised 6-foot-7 sophomore Donte Minter, who had 21 points against North.

“He’s offensively gifted,” said Gurley. “And remember, he’s just 15 years old.”

Now, Greg McKenzie and the Trojans (2-2, 0-2) make a trip to Mount Ulla and Gurley knows who the Falcons must stop.

“They still have Matt Hubbard, an excellent 3-point shooter,” he said. “He still runs the point at times but he has moved into the role of No. 2 guard. The key is knowing where he is at all times.

“They’re 0-2 but that’s very deceiving,” he said of the Trojans’ losses to Harding and Central Cabarrus, two of the league favorites. “We know they’re good.”

But until the opening tip, you can bet the West players will still be patting themselves on the back for the comeback in the raucous North gymnasium.

“North was doing the things they needed to and I thought they were closing in (on a win),” said Gurley. “But Scooter snatched it away.”

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Davie’s Young knows he has a real battle as well, considering Salisbury’s quickness and shooting eye.

Young said it’s hard to forget that the Hornets (3-4) are the ones who scored 87 points against his War Eagles.

“I expect it to be another up-and-down game,” Young said of tonight’s second meeting. “Salisbury is very athletic and they are well-coached.”

Davie’s previous game, an 81-51 shellacking of North Iredell Wednesday, showed the so-called basketball experts who think Davie is a one-man team — Duane Phillips— better think again. Phillips was the fourth leading scorer with 15, following 6-6 bruiser Larry Umberger (19 points), 6-7 Jon Orsillo (18 points) and 6-7 Djordje Lukic (16).

“We have more depth this year,” said Young, who has won over 400 games in his long career. He is in his third season in Mocksville.

So much depth, in fact, that Orsillo is coming off the bench.

“He has his best game of the year against North Iredell,” Young said of the left-handed Orsillo, who also had nine rebounds and six blocked shots.

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In girls action tonight, Salisbury (0-7) will not be favored against Davie (2-4) because Sherree Gillespie is still nursing a bum ankle suffered two weeks ago against Concord. Coach Jennifer Shoaf said she is holding the 5-11 scoring machine out until the Dec. 28-30 Sam Moir Christmas Tournament at Catawba College, just to make sure she’s 100 percent.

The best matchup of the night in girls play will be at West Rowan where Angie Waddell’s Falcons (5-1, 2-0) square off against Kristin Waffle, a Catawba College recruit, and Northwest Cabarrus (2-1, 4-1).

North (2-2) and South (2-4) will showcase two of the county’s top offensive threats in Cav Megan Honeycutt and Raider Jennifer Morgan.

East’s girls (4-1, 2-1) and coming off a rout against South Stanly Thursday night, should have no trouble with Harding (0-5, 0-3).

 

   

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