From staff reports

The prep basketball notebook …

Carson coach Brian Perry subbed five players at a time in and out for almost the entire game last Friday night at Mooresville.

Then he found five he wanted to stick with for the fourth quarter.

Among those were three regular starters: Darius Moose, Brandon Ferguson and Clint Fontenot. The two others are still adjusting to their roles for the Cougars.

Josh Doby came over from South Rowan for the second semester. Justin Basinger became eligible second semester. Both played almost the entire fourth quarter Friday, and both contributed to Carson’s second victory of the season, 61-51.

“They are starting to blend in, I guess you could say,” Perry said. “We’re playing a lot better as a team now with them. The first couple of games it was a little awkward for everybody. But you can kind of see things in practice and the games coming together for us as a team, and that’s good for us.”

Doby scored eight of his 10 points in the final quarter Friday. Basinger ran the point. And perhaps the biggest play of the game came on a sequence that featured both new Cougars.

With Carson leading 54-49 late in the game, Basinger fired a full-court pass to a wide-open Doby, who got fouled and converted a three-point play.

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GOOD WORK, BUT… Before Doby’s big play, Carson got one from Fontenot. The Cougars had wasted almost a minute off the clock, and Perry wanted them to waste more.

That’s when Fontenot, a post player, found himself open at the top of the key.

As Fontenot shot a 3-pointer, Perry screamed “No!” and reacted in disgust. Fontenot made it.

“In the locker room,” Fontenot said, “he was like, ‘I can’t believe you shot it. That was a big shot in the game, but don’t ever do it again.’ ”

CARSON GIRLS

As much as Carson wanted its first victory of the season after an 0-18 start, the Cougar girls looked forward to the aftermath almost as much as the win itself.

Post player Charlena Lynn, who scored a team-high 15 points, had this to say after a 47-33 victory against Mooresville: “It feels so good to finally win. It’s good to finally have a good headline in the paper also.”

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UNFAMILIAR: The Cougars held a double-digit lead the entire game after pulling ahead 16-5 after one quarter against the Blue Devils. That meant trying to kill the clock and maintain a lead instead of fighting back from a big deficit.

“We haven’t been in that situation with such a big lead,” coach Brooke Misenheimer said. “We’ve been up a couple points here or there, but our biggest thing was slowing the ball down, running our offense and being patient. I think you could tell — I know you could — that we haven’t really been in that situation before. But it was nice to be in that situation and be able to attempt to be patient.

“That was a challenge for us. But a good feeling, though.”

WEST ROWAN BOYS

When West Rowan’s boys were hammered by Northwest Cabarrus 79-58 on Tuesday, the margin was surprising, but not the winning team.

When West coach Mike Gurley said he was content to split with Northwest, it wasn’t just coachspeak. West has lost five of the last six meetings in the series. It broke a four-game losing streak to Northwest when it won 67-63 earlier this season in Mount Ulla.

Northwest has had suspensions and injuries. When everyone’s healthy and on the same page, coach Daniel Jenkins has a formidable team.

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LAKE LOSSES: West travels to second-place Lake Norman tonight to face what is likely the best team in the Wildcats’ brief history. West has lost three straight times at Lake Norman and hasn’t beaten the Wildcats in their big gym since 2003.

WEST ROWAN GIRLS

West’s girls (11-10) own six county wins, including one over North, but they have suffered how-did-that-happen losses to West Iredell and Northwest Cabarrus. The injury to Brooke Taylor affected the Falcons’ season. Taylor was leading the county at 19.0 points a game when she was hurt in West’s sixth game. She’s averaged 8.3 points since returning to the lineup.

NORTH ROWAN GIRLS

North Rowan’s girls were especially stingy in a 70-21 win against Central Davidson on Tuesday.

North’s opponent had reached 30 points in each of the Cavaliers’ first 18 games.

Twenty-one points were the second-fewest allowed by North since Mike White took over as head coach before the 2001-02 season. The Cavs beat Lexington 64-20 in the first meeting last season and held the Yellow Jackets under 30 points in all three matchups. The last game was a 73-23 win.

NORTH ROWAN BOYS

A season-high 10 players scored for North Rowan’s boys in a win against East Davidson last Friday, but a season-low four Cavaliers scored in a loss to Central Davidson on Tuesday.

SALISBURY BOYS

Senior Joe Allen has 889 career points heading into tonight’s game. Doug Campbell has scored 845 points and ranks 13th all-time at Salisbury.

EAST ROWAN BOYS

Kenan McKenzie’s 41 points in Tuesday’s overtime victory over West Forsyth were the most points ever scored in a game by a Rowan County player against one of the “Winston-Salem” schools.