By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
MOUNT ULLA ó West Rowan senior Myles Moore took a seat on the bench with three minutes left and received the loudest ovation of his career from frenzied fans.
Moore has scored 1,045 fewer career points than classmate K.J. Sherrill, but he was huge as West blew away NPC and county rival Carson 87-43 on Friday.
Moore had 12 of his career-best 18 points during the Falcons’ destructive, 37-point second quarter, and he outworked the reeling Cougars for six of his game-high eight rebounds in the third quarter.
“Myles jump-started us,” West coach Mike Gurley said.
It was over at halftime with the Falcons (10-2, 6-1) leading 51-19.
It was 10-10 early, but West ended the first quarter with stickbacks by K.J. Sherrill and B.J. Sherrill. Then the Falcons rolled to the first 13 points of the second quarter. Moore’s 3-pointer capped a 17-0 run.
“I just had a lucky night,” said a smiling Moore, who drilled three 3s in a three-minute span during the second quarter. “Good defense led to good offense.”
In its world-class second quarter, West shot 13-for-17 from the floor and knocked down six 3s. Besides Moore’s onslaught, Jordan Kimber nailed two 3s. Kaleb Kimber hit the other ó a fallaway for a 45-14 lead ó that had fans picking him up and high-fiving him in the bleachers.
“That second quarter, West hit the open shots and also made some contested ones, and we didn’t respond well,” Carson coach Brian Perry said. “We’ve got to get mentally tougher so that when a good team, even a really good team like West, goes on a run like they did, we can withstand it.”
The Falcons won 74-73 in overtime against West Iredell Tuesday and lost 71-68 at unbeaten Lake Norman Wednesday. Those scores had Gurley stressing defense Thursday.
“Thursday was a good mental day for us, and I took a page out of (football coach) Scott Young’s book and we went over the videotape of the Lake Norman game,” Gurley said. “The eye don’t lie, and we saw a few things.”
West got refocused and rededicated on the defensive end in a big way. Carson’s sensational junior Darius Moose entered the gym needing 18 points for 1,000. Now he needs 16.
Moose got a shooter’s roll on a 14-footer out of the corner in the first quarter, and that was his only deuce.
Josh Doby made three 3s and led the Cougars (6-9, 2-7) with 11 points. Carson hit only 14 field goals, including a pair of H.O.R.S.E. shots by reserve Ryan Jones in the final minutes.
“We don’t like to lose,” Moore said. “We lost a game Wednesday so we came hard and came hungry tonight.”
Perry watched his Cougars continue a roller-coaster ride. A solid Christmas tournament showing has been followed by a rough patch. Three straight losses, including two ugly wipeouts.
“I understand West was coming off a loss and was ready to play, but we were coming off a loss as well,” Perry said. “They’re a successful program and we’re still in the building process, but we’ve got to get more like them. When we lose, we’ve got to decide we’re not going to get beat again.”
Carson (43) ó Doby 11, Clanton 6, Ferrare 4, Sewell 4, Jones 4, Begic 3, Harden 2, Moose 2, Houston 2, Heggins 2, Britt 2, Ramic 1, Walser, Barringer, Holloway.west rowan (87) ó Moore 18, J. Kimber 14, Grant 10, K. Kimber 9, K.J. Sherrill 8, Ke. Sherrill 8, Huffman 5, Smith 4, Noble 4, B.J. Sherrill 4, Gore 2, Phifer 1, Crucitti.Carson 10 9 11 13 ó 43
W. Rowan 14 37 17 19 ó 87