By Dennis Davidson

dennis.davidson@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Besides those winning championships last night, at least one other basketball head coach is leaving the Dale’s/Sam Moir Christmas Classic with a smile on his face.

Carson boys coach Brian Perry was more than pleased, following his Cougars’ 73-63 victory over West Rowan in Wednesday afternoon’s fifth-place game.

Mooresville nipped Carson, 58-57, on Monday night, but the Cougars rallied and played very well yesterday and in a 68-23 romp over South Rowan on Tuesday.

“Other than not being in the championship game, winning two games up here feels really good,” said Perry. “You know, we talked about that loss to Mooresville on Monday and with our (South Piedmont) conference being so tough, we need to win every game we’re in, to help that overall record. This helps for the playoffs, given that we’re in them, so this win is pretty big.”

Super sophomore Jamarius Hairston, a 6-3 forward, had a double-double for the Cougars, leading the way with 20 points and 11 rebounds.  Four of Hairston’s boards were on the offensive end that resulted either in a put-back or a trip to the foul line.

Senior center Ryan Bearden had 13 points and seven rebounds but the football linebacker also did a defensive job on West’s top inside player Caleb Mauldin.

Mauldin had scored 54 points in the Falcons’ first two tournament games, but he got into foul trouble dealing with Bearden and Hairston. He fouled out with 3:50 left, scoring just five points on the day.

“We wouldn’t have had much of a answer for Mauldin without Bearden,” said Perry. “He did a good job, trying to contain him, and luckily for us, Mauldin got into some foul trouble and had to sit during some key moments in the game.”

Carson (8-5) seemed to have things under control from the beginning, even though West (5-6) led after the first quarter, 16-13. The Cougars had a 19-12 second period and took a 32-28 lead to the locker room at halftime.

Hairston took over in the third quarter, scoring eight of his points, pushing Carson out to a 51-38 advantage late in the period. West’s Paris Hillie scored the last four points of the quarter to make it a nine-point game.

West made several runs at Carson in the final frame, getting to within 56-50 on a Mauldin layup. But Bearden had a three-point play inside and Jailen Williams fired in a jumper and the lead was nine points again.

Carson’s Owen White drilled three 3-pointers in the fourth period, the last one coming with 1:50 left. That shot made it 71-59, and pretty much ended any West hopes for a comeback.

“I thought Hairston played really good this entire tournament … offensively, and rebounding the basketball,” added Perry. “You put that together with Owen shooting the ball well the last two games and defensively, I thought we communicated well and took some charges … so overall, it just ended up being a pretty good game and tournament for us”

“We’ve got a really good group,” continued Perry. “We’re sophomore heavy, our juniors are playing pretty good and we’re shooting the ball good. Right now, for this time of year, I think we might be a little further ahead than I even thought we could be.”

West coach Mike Gurley took more of a back-to-the-drawing-board approach.

“Carson played better than us and played more fundamentally sound than we did,” said Gurley. “Their execution was a lot better … if you just cut it down to the basics, they just killed us on the glass. Hairston and Bearden got a lot of rebounds but their whole team got a lot of rebounds … they just did a better job of going after it.

“You just can’t hope that the other team is going to miss shots, you’ve got to be the aggresser and I don’t think we were the aggresser on either end,” continued Gurley. “Credit to Coach Perry and the Carson kids. But I like my team. We’ve just got to become more a team on the floor and that starts with me, so we’ll do what we can.”

White ended up with 14 points for Carson, following Hairston and Bearden. Guard Martavio Rankin led the Falcons with 13 points (nine coming on 3-pointers). Jayson Delgado scored 12 for West, followed by Hillie and Nick Warren with 11 points each.

Austin Love had nine points and eight rebounds for West.

Note: Carson’s boys have now won 32 of its last 40 games against Rowan County opponents.

WEST ROWAN (63) — Love 9, Rankin 13, Mauldin 5, Warren 11, Delgado 12, Hillie 11, Stolsworth, Day 2, Powers.

CARSON (73) — Herron-Cuthbertson 7, White 14, Bearden 13, Hairston 20, Prugh 2, Westbrook 4, Williams 8, Whicker, Hogue 2, Perry 3.

West Rowan    16   12   14   21  — 63

Carson              13   19   19   22  — 73