Carson’s Colin Ball.

 

 

Staff report

CHINA GROVE — Mikey Beasley made a game-swinging 3-pointer with 12 seconds left, and Carson beat rival East Rowan 52-50 on Wednesday for a South Piedmont Conference victory.

East had a flurry of shots on its final possession, but none of them fell.

“They had three, maybe four shots at the end, I don’t know,” relieved Carson coach Brian Perry said. “I do know our guys were fighting in there and they didn’t score.”

While the Cougars (2-12, 1-5) have struggled to score and struggled to win all season, they have been reasonably competitive and better than their record. In most games they’ve been in the thick of it until they hit a scoring drought.

East (4-9, 1-5) has played a friendlier non-conference schedule than Carson and has more overall wins.

East also has 6-foot-6 Tee Harris.

“They’ve got a guy in Harris who makes a big difference,” Perry said. “We don’t have that 6-6 kid. That was my main worry going into the game. How were we going to try to deal with him.”

Harris would get 24 points and 12 rebounds, but Carson survived that onslaught.

The other scorer for East is guard Dylan Valley.

Carson’s game plan was to chase Valley off the 3-point line and make him a driver. Emory Taylor is a quick defender and was able to limit Valley to 11 points.

Carson led 26-25 at halftime.

East came out for the second half making a concerted effort to get the ball inside to Harris. He did some damage. Perry called on 5-foot-11 muscleman Garrison Collins to slow Harris down, and Collins stopped the bleeding.

It was 40-all after three quarters.

“It was a typical offensive game for us,” Perry said. “We’d miss and miss and miss again and we had some pretty rough stretches of offense, but what was different tonight was that we played good enough defense to stay close. We didn’t let it get away from us. And when we finally did get a few shots to fall, we were right there.”

Making a lot of the shots for Carson was freshman Colin Ball, who scored a career-high 18. Ball scored 16 in a strong Christmas tournament outing against Salisbury and could be a future standout. He’s one of those kids who is basketball 24/7. He’s averaged double figures over Carson’s last six games.

East pushed to a narrow lead in the fourth quarter. Carson was able to rally with key buckets by Hunter Burris and Ball.

‘We’re down one with 20 seconds and we put them on the foul line and they missed,” Perry said. “Emory (Taylor) grabbed the rebound and took off like a bat out of heck. He drew a couple of defenders and he kicked the ball to Mikey Beasley. Mikey made a big shot.”

Carson was a little lucky on East’s final possession, but the Cougars were due for some good fortune. It hasn’t bounced their way very often.

“We were finally able to sneak away with one,” Perry said.

Jay Howard and Beasley scored 11 each for the Cougars.

Carson has a great chance for a two-game winning streak as it goes to South Rowan tonight. South is 0-14, but is coming off its best offensive outing in a long time. South will also be fired up at home because Carson is a rival and Carson’s isn’t one of those teams that can physically overwhelm the Raiders with size and/or quickness.

“We’re not taking anything for granted,” Perry said. “We expect a tough game.”

East came into Wednesday’s game ranked 40th in the 3A West by MaxPreps, while Carson was ranked 48th.

East will get another matchup with the Cougars at home on Friday, Feb. 4.

East         13    12    15   10   — 50

Carson     14    12   14   12   — 52

EAST — Harris 24, Valley 11, Ellis 5, Clement 4, Overcash 2, Dale 2, Everhart 2.

CARSON — Ball 18, Howard 11, Beasley 11, Burleyson 5, Burris 4, Taylor 3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carson boys basketball coach Brian Perry has fought a confidence battle all year long.

The Cougars have competed with most opponents for a half or for three quarters, but then games have gotten away.

“Usually one bad stretched

The Cougars aren’t bad, although their record doesn’t reflect that. They had won once