From staff reports

Since he was shut out on opening night at Carson, South Rowan senior Wesley Honeycutt has averaged 20.9 points a game and has scored in double figures eight straight times.

South’s been playing basketball since the 1961-62 school year. Prior to this season, South players had scored 30 or more points in a game 23 times, but Honeycutt has already accomplished the feat twice this season.

He had 33 against Salisbury, the most points a South player has ever scored in one night against the Hornets.

He also had 32 against Mooresville, the second-highest scoring game a South player has enjoyed against the Blue Devils. Carlos Dixon poured in 34 in 1999.

Honeycutt’s 29 points against North Rowan on Monday were the most ever by a South player against the Cavaliers.

There are 13 different South players who have scored 30 points in a game.

South coach John Davis did it twice in the 1986-87 season, racking up 32 against South Stokes and 31 against East Rowan.

Dixon and Larry Lentz own four 30-somethings apiece to top the list. Doug Daugherty had three. Besides Davis, Jerry Franks reached the milestone twice.

Damien Argrett, Eddie Cherry, Marquis Bennett, Carmichael Reid, Percy Caldwell, Richard Gaston, Graham Corriher and A.L. Brown assistant coach James Allen reached 30 points once.

Argrett soared well past 30 on his magical night against Northwest Cabarrus. Now a pro in the Czech Republic, Argrett scored 40 in 1999-2000 and shares the school record with Daugherty, who lit up Davie County during the 2000-01 season.

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BO, BO, BO: Bo Caldwell totalled nine points in South’s first six games, and that stretch included four scoreless outings. The Raiders’ three-game winning streak has coincided with his move into the starting lineup.

He had 12 points in a win against Mooresville, 13 in a victory against Davie County and 11 in a win against North.

“Bo has come a long way in the last couple of weeks,” Davis said. “This kid showed a lot of progress in the summer. Since he’s had a chance to start, he’s taken off and run with it. I’m proud of that kid; he’s as good a kid as you’ll find. He works as hard as anybody.”

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GETTING IT DONE: South girls coach Jim Brooks wasn’t thrilled with the way his team played in a loss against Davie County on Friday, and the Raiders showed improvement even though they lost to North Rowan on Monday.

Katherine Van Wieren and Taylor May combined for 12 points in the setback against Davie. They accounted for 40 points against the Cavaliers.

“When you challenge kids, either people step up or they won’t,” Brooks said. “Taylor and Katherine both came to play. You could see it. It’s nice to look in kids’ eyes and they’ve got that ‘We’re going to get it done’ look.”

North jumped ahead 9-0, but May scored South’s first eight points. The Raiders trailed by 13 points at halftime but cut the deficit to two thanks to 10 third-quarter points from Van Wieren.

SALISBURY

The Salisbury girls broke the school scoring record in last week’s 96-35 win over Lexington.

The previous record came in a 94-45 win over Central Davidson in the 2004-05 season. Shayla Fields scored a school-record 47 points in that game.

In their latest explosion, the Hornets didn’t have any 47s, but they got scoring from 10 players, including career highs from Kwameshia Hicks (24), Kreneshia “Nene” Phifer (10), Shanae Knox (nine), Kayley Gallagher (nine) and Meredith Wingerson (eight).

EAST

Senior guard Spenser Davis has had an incredible rate of assists (53) to turnovers (seven) and has accumulated a team-leading 31 steals.

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DOING IT ALL: Senior Kurt Misenheimer has a reputation as a 3-point shooter, but he’s been much more than that for the Mustangs this season.

He’s leading the team in rebounding with nearly six per game.

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IRON MEN: An injury to guard Brian Ingold makes the Mustangs thinner and subtracts an experienced ballhandler and scrappy defender from the mix.

The trade-off is more minutes for junior Shawn Eagle, an explosive scorer. Eagle averaged double figures for South Rowan as a varsity freshman two seasons ago, including a 26-point effort at Concord.

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ON THE LINE: East claims the top seed for the Christmas tournament if it beats R.J. Reynolds tonight.

East last won the Moir event during the 1975-76 season when it beat North in the first round, West in double overtime in the semifinals and South in an overtime championship game. Rick Vanhoy, Walter Sifford, Kizer Sifford and William Lombard were the top scorers for that Gilbert Sprinkle-coached team.

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AUTOMATIC: East’s Misenheimer, Justin Vanderford and Kenan McKenzie are all shooting 80 percent or better from the foul line.

NORTH

North freshman Winslow Cherry has scored 16 points two straight games and will be listed among the county leaders after he plays his fifth game — North’s 10th.

Athletes must play in at least half of their team’s games to be listed.

Cherry scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half Friday in a loss to Ledford. North coach Kelly Everhart said that wasn’t necessarily by design.

“It really just happened by itself,” Everhart said. “I thought he developed an attitude that he was not gonna be stopped in the second half. I was telling the guys in the locker room that that’s the kind of attitude we’ve got to play with. All five of us that are on the court have to play with that kind of attitude.

“He’s a freshman, and I think he tried to take the game over for us. It’s a good thing that he did.”

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DOWN, BUT NOT OUT: The 0-9 start for the North boys is the worst in school history. The previous worst start was by the 1965-66 Cavaliers. They dropped their first eight outings before beating Troutman 54-53 and finished 5-15.

The current Cavaliers figure to do better than 5-15 when all is said and done. Several CCC teams look very beatable.

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SUPER SIERRA: Senior forward Sierra Ingram has 476 career points and will soon become the 26th girl to score 500 for the Cavaliers.

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SHEMIEKA WATCH: North senior Shemieka Brown will have 1,141 career points entering the Christmas tournament.

With her first field goal in the tourney for the top-seeded Cavaliers, Brown will surpass Lola Jones (Class of 1990) as North’s No. 5 all-time scorer.

Gail Garrison (1,241 points), Megan Honeycutt (1,555), Stephanie Cross (2,019) and Sophilia Hipps (2,264) are at the top of the list.

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CRUNCH TIME: Brown has made a habit this season of scoring most of her points in the final quarter. She scored seven of her game-high 15 points in the fourth quarter in a victory against Ledford on Friday.

After the game, North assistant coach Norma Wiedenhoft mentioned that Brown must be a fourth-quarter player. Head coach Mike White was just glad Brown scored when she did. The Cavaliers led by six points entering the final quarter but won 45-31.

“That right there, that was, whew,” White said. “She gets it when it counts.”

WEST

Senior Jamel Carpenter continues his steady climb up the Falcons’ all-time scoring list.

Carpenter, who became the 11th Falcon to surpass 1,000 points earlier this season, has 1,075 points entering tonight’s game and is now No. 7 on West’s scoring list.

Still ahead of Carpenter are Roger McSwain (1,138), Phillip Williams (1,139), Alphonso Keaton (1,251), Joel Fleming (1,357), Donte Minter (2,087) and Scooter Sherrill (2,469).

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BIG SHOES: West’s 6-1 start with such a young team is a tribute to Carpenter and coach Mike Gurley (209-53 at West, following a successful run at Lexington).

West graduated three players last spring– Ronnie Cuthbertson, Bradley Reid and Wesley Turner — who combined to score 1,791 varsity points.

CARSON

Carson senior Mackenzie White impressed West Iredell girls coach Josh Weddington even on a 1-for-10 shooting night in Carson’s 45-33 loss to the Warriors on Tuesday.

“She’s such a good ballplayer,” Weddington said. “She made a lot of things happen for them. She makes them go, and I imagine they go as she goes.”

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NEW ARENA: West Iredell athletics director Mark Weycker hopes the Warriors’ new gym will be ready when the Cougars visit next season.

Weycker is also excited about the addition of South Rowan and East Rowan to the NPC next season.

“It might cost us some money in the short term,” said Weycker, who is bumping two Lincoln County schools off his football schedule to make room for East and South. “But as an athletics director, you have to look at the big picture and try to do the most good for the most people involved.”

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LOOKING FOR POINTS: Carson’s boys ran into a tough defensive squad when they lost to West Iredell 54-39 on Tuesday. WI coach Bryan Cantrell said his team is yielding just 44 points per game.

Carson coach Brian Perry knows everyone doesn’t defend like West Iredell, but he’s also aware the Cougars have to develop more scoring options if they’re going to win NPC games.

Brandon Ferguson is averaging 20.9 points a game, but teams are going to concentrate their defenses on him. Carson’s second-highest scorer — freshman post player Darius Moose — averages 8.2 points a game.

“It’s gonna take a collective effort because teams are gonna play Brandon tough with their best defender,” Perry said. “The challenge for us as a coaching staff is to find other scorers and still to try to get shots for Brandon.”