By Paul Hershey
sports@salisburypost.com
CHINA GROVE ó Carson fell into a 10-point hole after one quarter Friday night, but it was the offensive struggles in the third period that proved even more costly.
Down seven at halftime, the Cougars made just 2 of 17 shots from the field during a five-point third period and first-place Statesville pulled away to a 77-58 North Piedmont Conference victory.
Statesville (11-3, 6-0) never trailed after taking a 3-2 lead, built a 19-point cushion after three quarters and was never really threatened in the fourth.
“During the droughts we’ve got to grind it out defensively,” Carson coach Brian Perry said. “If we stick on 29 for four minutes then we can’t give up 15 on the other end. We’ve got to kind of limit them too and we just didn’t do a good job of doing that tonight.”
Perry started the game with an unusual lineup of Donta Gilbert, Malachi Parker, D.J. Love, Travis Abbitt and Dylan Eagle.
Gilbert and Love bookended the opening quarter with layups off of steals, but in between the Cougars struggled, making just 2 of 8 shots.
“I thought those guys have earned some time in practice so we gave them a look out there,” Perry said. “We had a hard time scoring a little bit with that lineup, but I thought they did okay.”
Statesville, meanwhile, hit 7 of 9 from the field to build a 19-9 advantage.
Normal starters Nick Houston, Rik Heggins and Zach Wagner entered a minute into the second period and quickly contributed. Houston hit a 3-pointer and Heggins scored on a driving layup. Love followed with a jumper and Houston added a putback to make it 23-19.
The Cougars got within two on two occasions – on a 3-pointer by Wagner and two free throws by Houston – and had several chances to tie or get a lead, but never could.
The Greyhounds then scored the last five points to push the lead back to seven.
Still, Perry felt comfortable.
“We’d have loved to been up but we weren’t terribly bothered by being down a few at halftime,” he said.
Of course, he wasn’t expecting a third quarter like the one the Cougars endured. After a basket on the first possession of the half, Carson missed nine straight shots before Love made a runner in the lane with under three minutes to go.
The Cougars then went scoreless the rest of period after that.
Whether it was open jumpshots, point-blank layups or – on one occasion a dunk attempt by Heggins, nothing else fell through the Carson hoop.
“It seemed like that scoreboard got stuck on 29 for us for a really long time,” Perry said.
“We’ve had those spells this year. Sometimes you think you get good looks but they just don’t go down.”
Adding insult to injury, Statesville made it 48-29 at the end of the quarter when Marquis Willis grabbed a long rebound and banked in a long 3-pointer at the buzzer while falling backward near midcourt.
After the hot start, the Greyhounds didn’t shoot particulary well either, but they controlled the boards and were camped out at the free-throw line all night, finishing 24 for 43 in the game. Four Cougars fouled out before it was over.
“We had a lot of guys over there that we didn’t have an option to put it, so that’s never good,” Perry said.
“You can’t put someone on the foul line 40 times and win. We’ve got to move our feet a little better and get our hands off of them and not foul as much. They’re athletic, they’ve got good shooters and a big guy down low so it’s tough to guard them.”
Carson, which again played without Cody Clanton, got only as close as 64-52 in the fourth, but that came with just two minutes left.
Houston finished with a team-high 17 points. Wagner had 12 and Eagle scored 10.
Willis and Nick Schofield each scored 23 to lead Statesville. Head coach Sonny Schofield was pleased with the win, though not satisfied with his team’s play.
“We’ve got a lot of stuff we’ve got to fine tune,” he said. “We have too many spurts in the game where we just get out of rhythm and we try to create a shot too much. We put a lot of points on the board, but I didn’t like our teamwork and the way we passed the ball.”
STATESVILLE (77)ó Schofield 23, Willis 23, Gaither 17, Warren 6, Watlington 4, Lowery 3, Felts 1, Knox.
CARSON (58) ó Houston 17, Wagner 12, Eagle 10, Love 7, R. Heggins 6, Gilbert 4, Williams 2, Parker, Abbitt, Raper.
States. 19 12 17 29 ó 77
Carson 9 15 5 29 ó 58