CONCORD — West
Rowan’s boys basketball team can win by a runaway even when the Falcons aren’t
at their best.
Coach Mike Gurley’s undefeated
Falcons broke open a reasonably close game in the third quarter and downed Concord 89-59
in a 3A South Piedmont Conference contest.
The Falcons hit their highest point
total of the season in a fast-paced game and won by their biggest margin while improving
to 5-0 in the SPC and 9-0 overall. Concord slipped to 1-5 and 1-8.
The Falcons shot only 41.5 percent
from the floor (34-for-82), made just more than half their free throws (15-for-27) and
committed 24 turnovers, but still led most of the way.
“I was pleased with our effort,” said
Gurley. “Was it pretty? It wasn’t an A game, but the effort was there.”
The Falcons, who have won 17 straight
regular-season games over two seasons, led by eight at 42-34 at halftime despite playing
most of the first half without 6-foot-7 center Donte Minter.
Minter, averaging 17 points, went out after
picking up his second foul with 5:22 to go in the first period and the Falcons trailing
10-7. He didn’t play again until the second half.
“When Donte went out, we knew that we had
lost a viable offensive player,” said Gurley. “Somebody’s got to pick us
up. It’s not really, ‘Can we play without Donte?’ as much as ‘We have
to play because we’re West Rowan, and we’re in the middle of the game.’ We
can’t pout about not having somebody on the floor. The guys on the floor have got to
pick us up.”
West’s reaction to the loss of Minter? The
Falcons went on a 13-0 run for a 20-10 lead and stayed out front the rest of the way.
Scooter Sherrill, Scooter Dalton, Horatio Everhart, Terris Sifford and Minter’s
replacement, Brandon White, all contributed in the run.
Sherrill finished with 25 points, putting the
senior guard within 15 points of becoming the first male player in Rowan County history to
score 2,000 career points. Also scoring in double figures were Minter, who got 12 of his
15 points in the second half, and Everhart and Sifford with 13 and 10, respectively.
Dalton had nine points.
One reason West led by only eight at halftime was
that Gurley played all 13 players, building depth for the future.
“We’re trying to get people used to what
their role is. We could have put them away two or three times early, but we didn’t. I
think there were times where we had it 14 or 16, and that’s where we should have
maybe got the job done and finished it, and we didn’t. They called time out, and
coach (Foster) Parker made some adjustments, and we seemed to let down.”
Gurley got 15 points from his bench, including
eight by the 6-7 White.
“These young guys: They don’t really
have time to feel their way into it. They’ve got to get ready for it. People are
coming after us. That’s what makes it fun,” said Gurley.
While West came within three points of having six
players in double figures, the Spiders got 50 of their 59 points from two Marcuses —
Black with a game-high 27 and Cooke with 23.
“I think the reason they stayed in the
ballgame was that Marcus Black was shooting the ball really well. Cooke’s going to
get his. I’m kind of realistic and understand that. . It was the Marcus Black factor
that kept hurting us,” exclaimed Gurley.
Black hit three straight 3-pointers in the second
period and four for the game. He was 8-for-14 before cooling off and missing 10 of his
last 11 tries.
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