By Ryan Bisesi
rbisesi@salisburypost.com
MOUNT ULLA — At this stage of the game, Keshun Sherrill knows the procedure.
Dominate, and they will chant.
After a momentus 3-pointer in his fourth 30-point performance of the year, the leading scorer in the county heard his name called once again by a fervent West Rowan crowd in a 74-59 triumph against county rival Carson in a 3-A North Piedmont Conference clash.
It was the fourth straight win for the Falcons after falling to Lexington on Jan. 10.
On a night where the battle between student sections was just as intense, the Falcons pulled away after a sluggish third quarter at Falcon Gym. West maintained a double-digit lead for the rest of the night after Sherrill’s trey with 5:56 left and avenged a 69-60 loss in the Moir Classic to beat the Cougars for the second time this season.
“It’s a heated rivarly so we just had to calm down and play our game,” Sherrill said. “We couldn’t get involved with the crowd. We just had to play our game.”
It was West’s game for much of the night. The Falcons led from early in the first quarter onward, with Carson only threatening at the end of the third, when it cut its deficit to 53-46 after a layup from Nick Houston.
“I thought there was times when we fought really hard,” Carson coach Brian Perry said. “Defensively, we had a nice little spurt at the end of the third quarter.”
The win kept West (9-9, 7-1 NPC) a game behind first place Statesville in the league. B.J. Sherrill scored 11 points and Keiro Cuthberson notched eight for West.
“Keiro Cuthberson played really well tonight and Jarvis Morgan played with a lot of energy,” Gurley said. “A lot of people don’t know it, but Dominique Noble and B.J. Sherrill are huge for what we’re trying to do.”
Keshun Sherrill converted a put-back and Dominique Noble got two of his four points on a fast break layup to start the fourth and put West ahead 57-46. Sherill’s trey from the wing made it 60-48 shortly thereafter, and the lead never dipped below 10 after that. Noble’s point-blank basket while being fouled gave West its biggest lead at 70-52 with 2:46 remaining.
“We needed to get a couple of stops together at the beginning of the fourth quarter and we didn’t do it,” Perry said.
Carson (7-10, 4-4 NPC) shot 10 free throws in the third, canning nine of them in attempt to make it a game. After scoring 23 in the first half, the Cougars matched that total in the third.
“I knew they were going to make a run,” West coach Mike Gurley said. “It was a little frustrating because their run was coming without the clock moving because we put them on the foul line.”
After leading 15-10 at the end of the first quarter, Connor Evans got his only points of the night on a 3-pointer and Kevin Turner had his only two on a shot in the paint, pushing the lead to 22-12. Travis Morgan, who finished with 10 points, threw down a thunderous dunk along the baseline dunk and Devin Parks ended a fast break with a layup to highlight a second-quarter spurt that put West ahead 30-18. Carson called timeout in effort to stop the bleeding, but Keshun Sherrill hit a running one-hander in the lane after the stoppage.
“When he’s hitting, and that’s about every time we play them, he’s tough to stop,” Perry said of Sherrill.”You just hope he has an off night.”
West held a 35-23 lead at the break.
After West went ahead 52-37 on two Sherrill free throws, Carson went on a 9-1 run in the final 2:51 of the third.
After the third, West clamped down on defense and held Houston to just two points on a pair of free throws with less than two minutes to go.
“We came out in the fourth quarter and made some hustle plays,” Gurley said. “We finally made adjustment in the fourth quarter. At that point we were just trying to keep the ball out of [Houston’s] hands.”
Houston finished with 23 points to lead the Cougars. D.J. Love paced the rest of the Carson scorers with 15.
“Nick is a great shooter,” Perry said. “We’ve been begging Nick to drive and attack the rim and he’s starting to do that a lot better at doing that.”
CARSON (59)— Houston 23, Love 15, Higgins 8, Wagner 7, Gilbert 2, Eagle 2, Williams 2, Abbitt, Radar, Parker.
WEST ROWAN (74) — K. Sherrill 30, B. Sherrill 11, Morgan 10, Parks 5, Noble 4, Edwards 3, Turner 2, Martin 1, Warren, Avery, Laster, Cuthberson, Phifer, Kraft.
Carson 10 13 23 13 — 59
W. Rowan 15 20 18 21 — 74