Staff report

LANDIS — There were positives for South Rowan’s boys basketball team in Tuesday’s 58-49 Central Carolina Conference loss to Oak Grove.

Some squad members made it back healthy. Nine Raiders scored. Marcus Holloman had a career game with 15 points.

Holloman hadn’t played since very early in the season. Jackson Deal also returned.

Barrett Thompson did a good job of attacking and getting to the foul line and scored eight points.

The bad news was the Raiders (2-4, 1-2) basically knocked themselves out of a winnable game in the third quarter.  Down 36-30, they had a series of unforced turnovers while running their halfcourt offense, and Oak Grove turned every mistake, every shaky decision, every soft pass, into a transition score on the other end.

“Turnovers are very tough for us to overcome, as a team,” South head coach Daniel Blevins said. “We struggled for a stretch in the third quarter and got really sloppy with the ball. We gave the ball away too many times.”

South went from down six to down 20 in a hurry.

“We got down 20, and during a timeout I challenged them to dig in,” Blevins said.  “We got it back to as close as seven, but we just couldn’t get the scores down the stretch to make it a game.”

Oak Grove shot the ball well — 48 percent from the field, 6-for-15 from 3 and 10-for-15 on free throws.

But the key stat was 18 steals by the Grizzlies (2-3, 2-2).

 

OAK GROVE (58) — Craven 15, Whitaker 9, Pole 6, Johnston 6, Hester 6, Stinson 5, Van Leuvan 4, Suarez 4, Long 3.

S. ROWAN (49) — Holloman 15, Thompson 8, Chrismon 5, Woodman 4, Deal 4, Hubbard 4, Dextraze 4, Crainshaw 3, Ritchie 2.

Oak Grove 12   17   23   6   — 58

S. Rowan   11   12   10   16  — 49