By David Shaw

sports@salisburypost.com

GRANITE QUARRY — They don’t hand out any gold stars for hanging around with one of the state’s premier teams for half a game.

But if they did, the East Rowan boys basketball squad would have earned several of them Friday night before falling, 84-55, to No. 3 Robinson.

“We came out and played our best half of the season,” first-year coach Kurt Misenheimer said after host East (5-17, 3-13 SPC) had its modest, two-game winning streak snapped. “We may have caught them a little bit off guard because they were playing their third game of the week. But we played defense, we boxed out and did a lot of things right.”

They did. East found itself tied after one quarter and trailed the second-place Bulldogs by only 37-32 at halftime.

“We practiced for this,” said ER senior Naquis Caldwell after totaling 14 points. “We wanted to sneak up on them and maybe pull off a surprise. What I didn’t know is that they had three players who could flat out go get it.”

Instead, winning coach Lavar Batts Sr. gave Robinson (18-3, 15-1) a good talking to at halftime and it responded with something right out of Cirque Du Soleil. 

“The whole first half we were very slow,” he said after Robinson won its eighth straight. “We relied on too many jump shots. At halftime, we talked about being a good team and being a great team. The great teams don’t take a half off. After that we got back to playing our basketball.”

Their basketball included a bouncy, 10-0 run to open the third quarter, then an acrobatic ally-oop connection between guard Jordan McKenzie and high-scorer Lavar Batts Jr. (27 points) that made it 50-34 midway through the period. And when Batts threaded a 3-pointer late in the quarter, the guests had a blink-and-you-missed-it 61-40 lead. In the fourth quarter, they pogo-sticked their way to a 29-point edge when Baarkiar Anderson came off the bench and canned a 3-ball as time expired.

“In a close game, whoever comes out and plays the hardest third quarter has a good chance of winning,” Misenheimer said. “And they did. But we’re playing our best basketball this second half of the season. That’s what you strive for as a coach.”

East also received 14 points from senior Austin Love and 11 from freshman Brevin Goodlett. But Caldwell, who played in only his sixth game since returning from a torn ACL, was the face that kept showing up at both ends of the court.

“I tried to keep us in it,” he said afterward. “Tried to keep it close. We were down five at the half and feeling good about it. But man, that’s the fastest team I’ve ever played against.”

Coach Batts agreed. “That’s how we play — uptempo,” he said. “We don’t have any 6-8, 6-9, 6-10 kids to feed the ball to. We’ve got 14 guys who run and play hard for 32 minutes. When we do that, we’re solid.”

True, but for half a game East was just as sturdy.

“Our guys executed in the first half,” Misenheimer said. “But you’ve got to remember we start a freshman and a sophomore on this team. Those guys are working hard. The seniors are leading. And we’ve still got two winnable games left. Hopefully, this will help us finish the season strong.”

ROBINSON (84) — Batts 27, Spencer 18, Misenheimer 10, McKenzie 8, Trammell 8, Steinbacher 5, Gray 4, Anderson 3, Raper 1.

EAST ROWAN (55) — Caldwell 14, Love 14, Bre.Goodlett 11, Bra.Goodlett 5, Taylor 3, Scruggs 3, Sprinkle 3, Morton 2, Shuping, Meadows, File.

Robinson     19   18   24   23  — 84

East Rowan          19   13    8    15  — 55