Staff report

MOUNT ULLA — Macari Allison scored a season-high 22 points, and West Rowan’s boys basketball team pulled away from East Rowan with a dominating third quarter.

Second-seeded West led 35-26 at halftime in Wednesday’s North Piedmont Conference semifinal, but won 83-47 and was able to play everyone, including quite a few jayvees.

West had beaten the Mustangs 92-72 and 80-48 in the regular season.

Sixth-seeded East would have finished higher in the league without three forfeits. Then East advanced to the semifinals when Statesville was sidelined by a COVID issue in the first round. It was an unusual final week for the Mustangs.

West, which is averaging right at 80 points per game, moves on to Friday’s highly anticipated championship game against North Iredell in Olin. North Iredell (11-1) has lost only at West Rowan. West Rowan (12-1) has lost only at North Iredell.

West is ranked sixth in 3A, while North Iredell is ranked eighth.

East got a career-best 17 points from Cameron Padgett in its season finale and was able to trade buckets with the Falcons most of the first half.

But the Falcons erupted in the third quarter and outscored East 25-9 to settle matters. That’s been West’s trademark all season. Teams hang with West for a quarter or a half, but then the Falcons get hot and they’ve got enough scorers to put up a flurry of points.

Six different Falcons have scored 18 or more in a game this season. If West’s top six scorers matched their career high on the same night, the Falcons would score 161. Wood, the seventh man, has scored 25 points in the last three games, mostly from the 3-point line.

Allison scored nine of his points during West’s third-quarter surge.

Braden Graham had 17 points and 12 rebounds. Jalen Moss had 10 points and five assists. Sam Wood made three 3-pointers. Zeek Biggers only scored three points, but he had nine rebounds and three blocks.

 

EAST (47) — Padgett 17, Valley 9, Jordan 7, Jones 4, J. Sprinkle 4, Schenck 4, Shuping 3, Ellis 3, Young, Clement, G. Sprinkle, Dale.

WEST (83) — Allison 22, Graham 17, Moss 10, Wood 9, Harris 5, Mauldin 4, Currie 4, Connolly 4, Biggers 3, Cowan 2, Givens 2, Jacobs 1, Noble, Norman.

E. Rowan    11    15    9   12   — 47

W. Rowan   17  18  25   23   — 83