By David Shaw

sports@salisburypost.com

LANDIS — Carson’s boys basketball team needed a pick-me-up Friday night — and like a good neighbor, South Rowan was there.

The visiting Cougars made 11 3-pointers and busted out of their early-week Alcatraz with a lopsided 81-47 SPC victory.

“We wanted to finish the week up with some good defense and good rebounding,” coach Brian Perry said after Carson (4-2, 4-1) snapped a two-game losing streak. “And a good win. So we’re happy.”

They should be. After falling to West Rowan and Thomasville on Tuesday and Wednesday, Carson bounced back in a big way.

“We started off a little slow,” junior Jamarius Hairston said after netting 19  points. “We weren’t hitting. In the second quarter, we picked up the pressure, started getting open shots and pushed the ball on the fast break.”

South (0-6, 0-4) hung around in the opening period and led 14-13 Tyrese Shaver snatched an offensive rebound and stuck a put-back early in the second. But Carson, behind Hairston’s 11 second-quarter points, stretched its lead to 35-26 at halftime.

“It’s a little disappointing,” South coach Andre McCain said after the Raiders suffered their 30th straight loss. “In the first quarter, we took care of the ball, got it inside, defended and attacked. They couldn’t guard us inside.”

They didn’t have to in the second stanza. Carson used the third of Owen White’s five 3-pointers to surge ahead, 16-14, and never looked back. White finished with 19 points and was joined in double figures by teammates Jalen Williams (14) and Cameron Prugh (10).

“I think Owen had four (3-pointers) on Wednesday,” Perry said. “He’s shooting really well and we’re a great-shooting basketball team. We’re hungry and we’re going to shoot threes. If we can get him open, we’re gonna let him go.”

Carson turned the match into an all-you-can-eat buffet in the third period, when its scored 22 unanswered points and forged ahead, 60-30, when Brenden Westbrook swiped an inbounds pass and hit a layup with three minutes on the clock. The Cougars led by as 37 points after Hairston scored on a last-minute layup.

“In the second half, they went to a 1-2-2 and we lost the inside,” McCain said. “I told our guys that was going to happen, but we didn’t adjust. We pretty much lost that game in the third quarter.”

Junior Bailey Graham paced South with 14 points and Shaver added 10.

CARSON (81) — Hairston 19, White 19, Williams 14, Prugh 10, Westbrook 8, Perry 6, Banks 3, Sifford 2, Daniels.

SOUTH ROWAN (47) — Graham 14, Shaver 10, Powers 9, Klutz 6, Harrington 6, Peacock 1, Sellers 1, Childers, Corriher, Hubbard.

Carson                  13   22   33   13 — 81

South Rowan      12    14   11   10 — 47