Talk all you want about the gravity-defying left-handed tip-in Sherrill made off his own miss in the second quarter.

Talk all you want about Sherrill’s coast-to-coast layup on which he left three defenders in his wake with a behind-the-back dribble at midcourt in the third quarter.

You can even talk all you want — and you probably will for the next few days if you saw it — about the flying, 360-degree slam that Sherrill casually threw down in the fourth quarter.

Talk all you want about Sherrill’s athleticism. What the kid does best — and he showed it again in West’s rousing 87-75 victory over never-say-die Northwest Cabarrus on Friday night — is make those dull, boring, old-school, both-feet-on-the-ground foul shots.

He makes every last one of them. Sherrill beat North Rowan with a bundle of free ones Wednesday. He went a long way toward beating Northwest with another pile of charity tosses last night.

“I guess one day we’ll all learn not to foul Scooter,” sighed Northwest coach Greg McKenzie after Sherrill swished 14 free throws in a row.

Sherrill, the leading scorer in Rowan County history with 1,946 points might reach 2,000 in his next game. All he needs to do is get to the foul line 54 times. The rest will be easy. The free throws are automatic.

West coach Mike Gurley gets uneasy any time he hears the words “Northwest Cabarrus.” West played the Trojans three times last season. The results: two overtime wins by the Falcons and an upset by Northwest in the SPC Tournament. “I still have bad dreams about David Hendry making seven 3s to beat us,” Gurley says, his face turning pale.

But things were a mite easier for West (7-0, 3-0 South Piedmont Conference last night. And the biggest reason — other than Sherrill — was the fact that West is so much bigger than Northwest (3-3, 0-3). Not a little bigger. A lot bigger. This was David versus Goliath — with David Hendry no longer around.

Northwest’s tallest starter is 6-2. West’s only starter under 6-3 is usually power guard Scooter Dalton, the football star, who looks as if he could bench press a Volkswagen.

McKenzie’s formula to combat West’s overwhelming size was to run and press and shoot 3s, and then run and press and shoot some more 3s. Imagine Rick Pitino’s Kentucky teams in orange-and-white jerseys. Picture a horde of hornets streaming from a hive.

“If people want to know why Scooter Sherrill was still in there with 30 seconds left, it’s because it was Northwest,” said Gurley. “They can strike so quickly.”

And the Trojans did strike quickly at times. Down 67-45 after Sherrill’s around-the-world jam, they managed to slice West’s lead to 81-70 with just over a minute left and had several open 3-point looks that might have made things very interesting had they gone down. They didn’t.

“We got the shots we wanted, we’re just not hitting them right now,” said McKenzie, whose team has already run a West Rowan-Harding-Central Cabarrus gauntlet for its three league losses. “It hasn’t been a good time not to shoot well. We’ve played the best three teams in the league.”

West bolted out early 10-2 on a hot streak by Frankie Williams (10 points, seven boards), but Northwest was still hanging around at halftime, down just 37-30.

But West played like a state champion in the third quarter, shooting 10-for-12 and blowing open a 22-point lead. Sherrill had 10 of his 34 points in the quarter, but the real backbreaker for Northwest was three quick buckets and a couple of blocks by Brandon White, a towering first-year senior who could become an intimidator.

The Trojans played with manic intensity right to the end and forced 38 — that’s right — 38 Falcon turnovers. But it wasn’t enough. Because any time the Falcons got the ball up on the glass they scored.

West shot a sizzling 54 percent. Big men Donte Minter (6-7), White (6-8) and Williams (6-6) fired away almost unimpeded and combined to make 14 of 19 shots. Throw in Sherrill’s standard 9-for-14 (with two 3s) and it’s easy to see why West won with relative ease.

“We just didn’t have it. I didn’t like our defense or rebounding,” said McKenzie. “Minter (16 points) and Sherrill killed us with offensive boards on the weak side.”

West’s defense wasn’t perfect, but it was darned good, especially in the decisive third quarter. The Falcons forced 26 turnovers and held Northwest to 33 percent on field goals. Most important, Northwest had only three successful 3-point tries in what seemed like a million attempts.

The key to the Falcon “D” was the work of long-armed Terris Sifford on Northwest’s star guard Matt Hubbard, who had eight 3s and 33 points on opening night. Hubbard didn’t hit a single 3-pointer and didn’t make a field goal until he got a layup with 5:24 left in the game.

“Hubbard is a player,” said Gurley. “We knew we had to limit his 3-point looks. Terris, with help from Horatio Everhart, took away the 3 completely.”

“I’m glad Hubbard was mine.” said Sifford. “I want to guard the best man on the court every night.”

That won’t be possible, though, unless Gurley decides to put Sifford on Sherrill.

NW CABARRUS (75) — Smith 14, McKnight 14, Burgess, Hubbard 15, Ferguson 6, Reel 7, Raburn 2, Lindsey 5, Leister, Roseboro 4, Carmichael 8.

WEST ROWAN (87) — Dalton 6, Sherrill 34, Sifford 8, Everhart 3, Minter 16, Williams 10, White 7, Mattox, Mauldin, Barringer 1, Diggs 2, Trosper, Goodnight.

NW Cabarrus 14 16 11 34 — 75