By Mike London

Salisbury Post

THOMASVILLE — Salisbury’s boys scored 44 points in the first half — with just one 3-pointer — so the proudest person on the planet was coach Jason Causby.

Last season, the Hornets often fired up hair-trigger 3s from the hallway, the parking lot and the tennis courts, but in Tuesday night’s 73-43 rout of CCC foe East Davidson, they appear to have bought into Causby’s demand to work inside-out.

Salisbury’s personnel additions have made it easier to pound the ball into the paint, and 6-foot-7 Nick Smith and broad Joe Allen took turns overwhelming the smaller Golden Eagles (1-7, 0-1) in the lane.

Salisbury (4-1, 1-0) swished six

3-pointers in the second half after East Davidson gave extra attention to the big guys, but they were all on work-it-around, clean looks.

Doug Campbell made four second-half 3s and finished with 21 points. Allen (12), White (10) and Jacob Phifer (10) were also in double figures, and nine Hornets got in the scorebook.

“We had a good night shooting the ball, and it was because of the ball movement we had inside and out,” a pleased Campbell said. “The big guys were playing well. That opened it up.”

Causby gave much of the credit for Salisbury’s transformation to Campbell, a former wing shooter who is converting to point guard.

“We needed a point guard, and Doug was the obvious choice to be the leader,” he said. “All-conference, all-county, voted MVP by his teammates two straight years. He’s become a more complete player, and he knows when to shoot and when to pass.”

Causby looked like he might pass out early. He called an exasperated timeout in the opening minute.

“Plain and simple, we weren’t doing the things we’d talked about,” Causby said. “I can understand not being able to adjust on the fly, but when you’ve just spent 15 minutes drawing it up on the board it shouldn’t happen. I called the timeout because I didn’t want to let East Davidson build up any steam. We didn’t want to let them have any aspirations at all of knocking us off.”

Two early 3-pointers by Kevin Michael gave the Golden Eagles an 8-6 lead, but the Hornets settled the issue with a 20-0 run that finished the first quarter and began the second.

Salisbury ran off 34 points between East Davidson’s third and fourth field goals. It was an ugly

44-15 at halftime.

“We played in that stretch as well as we’ve played — shared the ball, were active defensively, and got after it on the boards,” Causby said. “We did all the things we work on.”

Many Salisbury fastbreaks were fueled by the long-armed Smith, who got a piece of at least six East Davidson shots and altered many more.

“You want to stay in front of your man, but we know there’s help back there if we make a mistake,” Campbell said. “Nick makes up for a lot.”

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NOTES: Allen was tossed in the third quarter with the game well in hand. He got a technical for a shove. Another technical and automatic disqualification were assessed because of his reaction to the first technical. … Former Erwin coach John Cherry’s Golden Eagles aren’t as talented as they were in recent years when Mitch Mullis, Justin Strickland and Josh Hill were lighting it up. “They’re still a conference rival,” Campbell said. “We shouldn’t have come out flat, expecting a cakewalk just because of their record.” … Salisbury is home against East Rowan tonight.

SALISBURY (73) — Campbell 21, Allen 12, Phifer 10, White 10, Abel 6, Rose 6, Allison 3, Duke 3, Witte 2, Gibbs, Ali, Handy.

East davidson (43) — Michael 17, C. Ward 8, Darr 5, Miller 4, Mouzon 2, Phillips 2, Ferguson 2, Workman 2, J. Ward 1, Callicutt.

Salisbury 24 20 14 15 — 73

E. Davidson 8 7 15 13 — 43

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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com.