From staff reports
Cleaning out the Moir Classic notebook …
Catawba athletic director Dennis Davidson was all smiles as the boys championship of the Moir Christmas Classic began on Tuesday between Salisbury and West Rowan.
Davidson said it was the best crowd in years, bringing back memories of the days when North Rowan’s Bryan McCullough and Scooter Sherrill were playing in the tournament.
“The interest just continues to be steady,” Davidson said.
All seven athletic directors should have been smiling as well. The proceeds are split between Catawba and their schools. Catawba keeps the concession money.
Catawba has been hosting this money-making event for 37 years.
“This is 13th I have directed since I became AD in 1996,” Davidson said. “Before that, the high school athletic directors (most recently, Sam Gealy) took their turns doing it.”
The Moir proves each year how Rowan County is basketball crazy. Davidson also likes the benefits it brings his school.
It is exciting,” he said. “The only thing we do that relates to it is a home football game, so it is sort of like having home football for three straight days. It wears us out, but at the same time, it’s rewarding, because there is a sense of pride in continuing a tradition that is so important to the community.
“And we know that it is the only time some local folks visit our campus all year ó some for the first time ever.”
–
WINDEX MAN: Salisbury senior Brandon Abel didn’t become the first male player to repeat as MVP of the Christmas Classic, but he did clean the boards for 24 rebounds in three games and closed his career in the event with another all-tournament selection.
A four-year varsity player, Abel played in three finals and on back-to-back champions. He has 964 career points, the ninth-best total in Salisbury history.
Abel scored 119 points in Moir Classics and helped the Hornets go 9-2 during his run.
n
BACK-TO-BACK: Salisbury has won two straight Moirs without the advantage of the first-game bye that goes to the team with the best pre-Christmas record, and it will take a six-game tournament winning streak into the 2009 event.
Salisbury boosted its all-time tournament records against North Rowan (9-7), South Rowan (13-6) and West Rowan (9-8) and now has a winning record in the event against all its county rivals.
The Hornets now own a record 12 Moir titles. Sam Gealy (who also won one at North) and Bob Pharr directed four tournament winners apiece, while Charles Hellard and current coach Jason Causby have piloted a pair of champs.
Salisbury’s girls also won, giving the Hornets a sweep of the event for the second straight year. The only previous sweeps were by East in 1975, the first year a girls tournament was held, and by West in 1992.
n
VERY YOUNG: Salisbury is a youthful team outside of Abel and veteran point guard Thaddeus Williams, a three-year varsity performer who turned in a solid tournament with nine assists and nine turnovers in 77 fast-paced minutes.
Moir MVP Darien Rankin and guards John Knox and Romar Morris are sophomores.
So is Alex Weant, who is 6-foot-7 and has good fundamentals. Weant wasn’t a big factor in the last two games in the Moir, but he’ll be an important guy for the Hornets as the season goes on.
Junior shooter Jahaan Hailey, who got votes for the all-tournament team, is essentially a sophomore, as he missed all last season with illness.
“Sometimes I get upset with them and expect them to always play great and forget that these are guys with a year or maybe a year and a half of varsity experience,” Causby said.
Even Rankin, a special player, will still have ups and downs. He had an invisible first half against North in Salisbury’s opener, but he was outstanding in the second half against the Cavaliers. Then he shot 9-for-10 against South in a semifinal and scored 20 against West in an intense championship game.
n
MEMORABLE SHOT: The moment fans will remember from the Moir is the 3-pointer Knox hit with 1:30 left in the title game to give the Hornets a six-point lead.
Causby said he wasn’t shocked by the shot. He wants his guys to be aggressive and confident, and Knox, the quarterback on Salisbury’s football team, didn’t hesitate to call his own number at a critical moment.
“John had been in a little bit of a slump, but I’d working with him in practice,” Causby said. “I didn’t mind that shot because we feel like even if we miss, there’s a pretty good chance we can go to the glass and get it back.”
Salisbury was 0-for-9 on 3s in the first half against West and only 3-for-18 for the game, but it kept firing. Knox and Hailey hit daggers in the stretch run.
n
NOT THE BEST: The Hornets still believe their best game this season was against Central Davidson when they put everything together for 32 minutes and routed the previously unbeaten Spartans 73-21.
n
HARD TIMES: It was a rough tournament for East’s boys, who didn’t win a game in the Moir event for the first time since 2002.
East played in the championship game in 2004, 2005 and 2006 and was the No. 1 seed in 2007.
East is still very much in the fight for a playoff berth, but it has to make a few shots. Daniel Plummer and Brian Grohman are the only Mustangs averaging more than 7.0 points a game.
East averaged a school-record 71.0 points a game last season. It averaged 49.0 in two games in the Moir.
n
MILESTONE: East senior Ashley Collins has scored 985 career points and is on the verge of becoming the seventh Mustang girl to score 1,000.
Maggie Rich, Nicole Loggins, Julie Austin, Cristy Earnhardt, Karen Trexler and Lisa Arey surpassed the milestone.
East’s next two games are at home, so she should reach the magic number in front of the home fans.
Senior Katelynne Poole has 834 points and is the 15th in East history to top 800.
n
TURNAROUND: North’s boys changed the outlook of their season with consolation victories over Davie and East.
In both games, the Cavaliers made plays at the end, particularly sophomore Javon Hargrave, a football stud who turned in a monster tournament.
Hargrave had 35 rebounds in three games, including eight offensive boards against Salisbury. West had only five offensive boards against the Hornets.
North hadn’t won a game in the tournament since 2004.
n
FALCONS’ FUTURE: West won its last 14 football games and its first seven boys basketball games, so the loss to Salisbury in the Moir championship game ended quite a run for the school.
West coach Mike Gurley gave all the credit in the world to Salisbury and wasn’t down on his team, even though it let a 15-point lead go up in smoke.
“I’m too old and too far down the road to let one loss curtail our goals,” he said. “Playing in this great environment against a team that athletic won’t do anything but help us, and a lot of the things we did in the tournament excited me. I like our chemistry, I like our depth, and I like the way our guys are committed to each other. We have a chance to become a good basketball team.”
West has only played eight games because several games were pushed back by football considerations.
The Falcons have a lot of three-game weeks ahead in a grinding 18-game NPC schedule, but they have the depth to do well.
“This game was just one game,” West senior K.J. Sherrill said after a 61-57 loss to Salisbury. “We’re not going to get our heads down about it.”
Sherrill did not shoot well in the tournament, going 4-for-16 in West’s two games, but he yanked down 22 rebounds.
n
ALL-TOURNEY: Sherrill’s offensive struggle and the fact that West played only twice in the event made it tough picking all-tournament guys for the Falcons.
Senior Kaleb Kimber, the second option for West, was just OK with 21 points on 7-for-17 shooting.
Freshman guard Keshun Sherrill had a strong outing against Carson with 19 points in a semifinal romp, but he wasn’t a big factor in the championship game. His nine points included a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Jordan Kimber, a freshman who had 17 points in the title game and was 3-for-3 on 3s, got the nod as West’s plaque recipient.
n
COUGARS GROWL: Carson’s boys beat South, their fiercest rival, in the third-place game so the Cougars left Goodman Gym with two big wins and a few grins.
In the opening round, Carson beat East for the first time, and the third-year program now has beaten every school in the county except Salisbury.
Carson has won two of the last three meetings with South, although the upcoming NPC matchups between the neighbors will be bigger and even more heated than the Moir meeting.
n
MOOSE IS LOOSE: Carson junior forward Darius Moose, an all-tournament pick, is closing in on being his school’s first 1,000-point scorer.
Moose has 947 points. A three-year varsity player, he’s scored 124 in eight outings in the Christmas tournament.
Carson has a tough assignment Friday. It plays undefeated Lake Norman, which has been overwhelming most of its opponents.
Carson stunned Lake Norman 64-62 in their last meeting.
n
MORE MORRISON: South’s all-tournament pick Hunter Morrison entered the Moir averaging a county-high 21.9 points and left averaging 21.3. He’s followed on the county scoring list by Rankin (17.7), Moose (17.1), K.J. Sherrill (16.5) and Abel (15.8).
Morrison’s 35 points in the first round against Davie broke the school scoring record for the Christmas tournament that Larry Lentz set with 34 points against A.L. Brown in 1988.
Morrison has scored 599 career points, including 255 this season. He is 24th on South’s career list and likely headed for the top 10.
There’s a long way to go and Morrison will be the focus of defenses the rest of the season, but it’s worth noting only three players in South history have averaged 20 points for a season ó Carlos Dixon (24.4 in 1998-99), Carmichael Reid (21.4 in 1991-92) and Jerry Franks (20.4 in 1967-68).
With Morrison playing at a high level and with B.J. Grant and Reid Shaver playing tough inside, South just has to get its shooters going to win often in the NPC, a league that looks pretty even after Lake Norman, West and Northwest Cabarrus.
John Davis rebounded from a rough first Moir game to score 23 points in the last two, and Blake Houston hit three of South’s six 3s against Carson.
South has a chance to get back on track against West Iredell Friday. West Iredell is one of the middle-of-the-pack teams the Raiders will be competing with for one of six NPC playoff spots.
Northwest, East Rowan, West Rowan, Mooresville, Lake Norman and Statesville got the berths last season.
–
Ronnie Gallagher and Mike London contributed to the notebook.