By Marny Hendrick

sports@salisburypost.com

GRANITE QUARRY — The North Stanly Comets put on a rebounding and fast break clinic Friday night at East Rowan, surprising the Mustangs with an offensive blitz in the middle two quarters and claiming a 64-40 high school basketball win.

In stark contrast to the East season opening win at North Stanly last Monday (58-50), the Mustangs (1-1) seemed out of sync all night and were unable to keep pace with the sheer speed and quickness of the Comets (1-1).

“We ran our transition game really well tonight,” said North Stanly Coach Chris Misenheimer. “That, to me, was probably the biggest difference tonight. We ran the floor extremely well.”

Senior point guard Luke Gibson directed the fast paced attack for the winners with 20 points, including five of his team’s eight three pointers in the second half. Comet big men Stephen Misenheimer (14 points, 7 rebounds) and Tate Cord (10 and 6) dominated the inside as East was out-rebounded, 32-23.

“We just did not do much right tonight” said Mustang Coach Kurt Misenheimer, making his varsity home debut as the new head coach. “We didn’t box out, we didn’t play good defense, we didn’t execute on offense and we weren’t patient enough against their zone. It is frustrating because we put in a lot of time going over this stuff.”

The Comets’ match-up, 3-2 zone was especially effective in the second quarter when they held the Mustangs to just three points and pulled out to a 23-13 halftime margin. East got baskets from Naquise Caldwell and Austin Love to open the second half but the Comets then went on a fast break binge as Cord scored three times in transition.

A pair of three-pointers by Misenheimer, one by Gibson and another by Cord broke the game open as North Stanly was suddenly up, 43-20, and in complete control. The Mustangs used a combination of different players down the stretch to try and get something going, but never got closer than 20. Nine different players scored for East but none managed double figures. Point guard Bravon Goodlett led the way with nine points, seven off of free throws.

“Right now, we are just looking for leadership from our players,” East’s Misenheimer said. “We’ve got a big conference game next Tuesday at Cox Mill, which will be a huge test for us to see how we respond to this loss.”

The Comets, out of the 1A Uwharrie Athletic Conference, will just try to keep things in perspective going forward this season. “I am just proud of the way our team bounced back,” North’s Misenheimer said, “But I told the team they can’t be settled, don’t get too high and never get too low.”

N. Stanly (64) — Gibson 20, Misenheimer 14, Cord 10, P.T. Childress 7, Dennis 6, Merritt 4, Clark 3, B. Childress.

East R0wan (40) — Bravon Goodlett 9, Shuping 6, Downing 6, Love 5, Elliott 4, Meadows 3, Morton 3, Caldwell 2, Brevin Goodlett 2. Sprinkle.

N. Stanly    10  13  24  15 — 64

E. Rowan   10   3  13  14 — 40