Strange game Wednesday night at Goodman Gym.
Fifth-seeded Salisbury spent the better part of three quarters stinking up the joint, only to emerge smelling like a tray of cinnamon rolls.
“It wasn’t pretty,” junior Romar Morris said. “But it sure feels wonderful.”
That it was. Salisbury collected its third straight Sam Moir Christmas Classic boys championship despite playing a game punctuated by rushed shots, senseless turnovers and a free-throw percentage that made coach Jason Causby scowl like he’d just swallowed sour milk.
In short, Salisbury’s 59-49 final-round victory over feisty North Rowan was so bad it was good.
“Of course we didn’t get the kind of win we wanted,” said Darien Rankin, now a two-time MVP. “But we didn’t lose. Our goal is always to execute everything we do and not have any letdowns. You can never take a play off.”
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Rankin made sure of that. He stepped into the limelight and scored eight of his 18 points in the decisive fourth quarter.
“Darien’s a leader, one of many,” said Causby. “He’s one that can put it in the hole and make critical shots. That’s what he did for us.”
Not only what, but when. A show of hands, please, from anyone who believed this game would be tied 40-40 entering the final period.
“Not me,” Causby said. “Everybody, all day long, was basically congratulating us before we even took the floor. Yeah, we had a nice win over Carson (in Tuesday’s semifinals). But I was genuinely concerned because I’ve watched North and they’re a good team. I knew they were capable of running up and down with us. So I wasn’t surprised it was 40-40. I was concerned it was 40-40, but not surprised.”
It was Rankin who provided the ingredient Salisbury had lacked all night ó a knockout punch. His free throw 10 seconds into the final period put the Hornets ahead for keeps. Later he added a short jumper from inside the lane, a couple of driving layups and another free throw as SHS surged to a 16-point lead with 1:19 to play.
“All that was,” he said, “was me trying my best to go to the rim and get fouled.”
By then they were playing the air-tight defense guard John Knox likes to call “Salisbury defense.” North had eight turnovers in the third quarter and managed only four baskets over the final 10:25 ó and two of them came in the closing seconds.
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Still, nothing came easy for Salisbury. North, the No. 2 seed, played like it had something important to say after ousting East Rowan and South Rowan earlier in the week. The Cavs hung around in the first quarter, then took a 28-25 halftime lead when 6-foot-5 freshman Malik Ford wowed the crowd with a major-league dunk as time expired.
“Halfway through, I didn’t know what was going on,” reserve Dominique Phillips said after contributing eight points and eight rebounds. “We just had to keep our heads up and keep looking for the next play. If you made a mistake, you had to get back and play the next play.”
Morris, a late arrival to the Salisbury locker room after posing with the championship trophy, didn’t expect North to challenge every possession. “We thought they were gonna lay down but they didn’t,” he said. “They pushed us.”
Knox wasn’t surprised.
“It was all us,” he said after snagging 11 rebounds. “We thought it would be easier. We didn’t expect them to fight like that. I mean, (Tuesday) we came out with all that intensity and got a big lead right away. Tonight we didn’t have that same spark in our eyes. We had to go find it.”
Perhaps Knox did the trick when he grabbed back-to-back offensive rebounds and hit a layup that tied the score late in the third quarter. Another key factor was the ineffectiveness of North bruiser Javon Hargrave, who was shackled by foul trouble. He was almost a non-factor, pulling down nine rebounds but managing only five shots the floor and failing to score.
“The fouls kind of took him out of the game,” said Alex Weant, Salisbury’s 6-7 post. “But that just went with the flow of the game. He’s a great player, but we’d double-down on him and make him second-guess his decisions.”
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Here’s something you can’t question: Salisbury, by virtue of its whatever-it-takes philosophy and impressive three-win week, is the county’s best team.
“That’s fine,” said Causby. “We really want to be able to say it again at the end of the year. We want to make the regional and maybe take a run at the state championship. But hey, we’ve got a lot of work to do before we can talk about that.”
Imagine what a tray of that would smell like.