Staff report

MOUNT PLEASANT — East Rowan’s boys lost at Mount Pleasant 77-65 on Tuesday in a season opener.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t encouraging signs in the non-conference contest. The Mustangs reached 65 points on only a handful of occasions in 2019-20, a two-win season in which they averaged 53 points per game.

East displayed good balance with guards Dylan Valley and Gavin Sprinkle scoring 12 each, swingman David Jordan getting 10, and post Cameron Padgett collecting eight.

Ten Mustangs scored.

Defensively, there’s still some growing to do. East wasn’t in bad shape at halftime, but the hot-shooting Tigers scored 46 points in the second half, and the Mustangs couldn’t reel them in.

“It was a tough loss,” said East’s new coach Andrew Porter. “We had a slow start. But we played hard and we made some runs. We just couldn’t get over the hump.”

That slow start got the Mustangs in a 17-7 hole after a quarter.

East battled back to a manageable 31-26 halftime deficit.

The Tigers pushed the lead back to a dozen with a 24-point third quarter and held on from there.

Three junior guards led the scoring for the Tigers. Brady Duke had 27, Jadon Carnes scored 19, and Jack Pruitt added 12.

East got eight rebounds apiece from Jordan and Vincent Jones.

East will be home against Central Davidson in a game moved up to Thursday.

 

EAST ROWAN (65) — Sprinkle 12, Valley 12, Jordan 10, Padgett 8, Shuping 6, Jones 5, Clement 5, Young 3, Ellis 2, Pinckney 2.

MOUNT PLEASANT (77) — Duke 27, Carnes 19, Pruitt 12. Others N/A.

E. Rowan               7    19   18   21   — 65

Mount Pleasant   17   14   24   22   — 77