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 doesnt 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 Wests 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
Gurleys team has met every challenge so far. He was right when he said in preseason
that the Falcons would get everybodys best shot.
And its still a long season, he
whewed.
The Falcons and the areas 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 Youngs 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.
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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,
Im going to do it, noted Gurley.
He also praised 6-foot-7 sophomore Donte Minter,
who had 21 points against North.
Hes offensively gifted, said
Gurley. And remember, hes 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.
Theyre 0-2 but thats very
deceiving, he said of the Trojans losses to Harding and Central Cabarrus, two
of the league favorites. We know theyre 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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Davies Young knows he has a real battle as
well, considering Salisburys quickness and shooting eye.
Young said its 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 tonights second meeting. Salisbury is very athletic
and they are well-coached.
Davies 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 shes 100 percent.
The best matchup of the night in girls play will
be at West Rowan where Angie Waddells 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 countys top offensive threats in Cav Megan Honeycutt and Raider Jennifer Morgan.
Easts 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).