Staff report

MOUNT ULLA — Lake Norman Charter’s boys basketball played well enough on Friday to win most high school games.

The Knights shot 40 percent, made 10 3-pointers, got to the foul line 28 times and had an acceptable 15 turnovers.

But West Rowan was a little better and outscored the Knights 76-71 in the South Piedmont Conference opener for both teams.

“We shared the ball and the result was a good team win,” West coach Dadrian Cuthbertson said.

Ten men scored for the Falcons, although the scorebook and scoreboard didn’t match up completely.

Lake Norman Charter’s book had the final score 75-71, while the individual points in West’s book added up to 78 for the Falcons.

The bottom line was that the Falcons (2-0, 1-0) won. Everyone agreed on that.

Will Givens didn’t have a great game from 3 (4-for-13), but made all of his 2-point attempts and added seven rebounds and four steals. He scored 22.

Kayvone Norman had one of the biggest scoring games of his career with 18 points.

West got 10 points from Brant Graham and got 4s and 5s and 6s from enough people to survive a battle on its home floor.

Braden Wilkie scored 18 for the Knights (2-2, 0-1).

West led 31-27 at the half, took a seven-point lead to the fourth quarter and held on.

LN Charter    18    9    19   25    — 71

West Rowan  19   12   22   23    — 76

LN CHARTER — Wilkie 18, Irelan 13, Leak 10, McConneyhead 9, Johnson 6, Kuhn 6, Holder 4, Smith 3, Augier 2.

WEST — Givens 22, Norman 18, Graham 10, Holmes 6, Martin 5, Hairston 5, Little 4, Kennedy 4, Young 2, Tucker 2.