Staff report

CHINA GROVE — It was another important step in the evolution of Carson’s boys basketball team.

On Friday, for the first time this season, the young Cougars crushed one of the good teams in the South Piedmont Conference. The Cougars also finished off  a sweep of one of the teams likely to make the 3A playoffs by hammering Northwest Cabarrus 79-61.

“It was a really good win against a really good team,” Carson head coach Brian Perry said. We were aggressive. We moved the ball.”

Carson (13-8, 7-7) evened its SPC record and is in great position to finish 9-7 in the league, as it finishes the regular season with East Rowan and South Rowan, the bottom two teams in the nine-team conference.

There are going to be nights when Carson shoots the lights out at home. This was one of them. Freshman Jacob Mills made seven 3-pointers and scored 25 points.

“Mills was on tonight and we’ve got an unselfish team,” Perry said. “We got the ball moving and found him in good spots.”

Mills and Jonah Drye got Carson off to a blazing start. Drye made five 3-pointers, scored 18 and had five assists.

CP Perry was getting the ball to both of them and racked up eight assists. He scored 22 points without making a 3. The exciting freshman guard got to the rim and the foul line.

“CP attacked and we were able to get to the foul line early,” Coach Perry said. “We also guarded well in the first half, one of our better defensive games.”

Carson has gotten some good SPC wins, but they’ve been nail-biters. This time it was 45-21 at halftime.

Drew Neve contributed 10 points and seven rebounds, while Colin Ball had 11 rebounds.

Jordan Gonder scored 17 for the Trojans (12-10, 7-8). Isaac Woolfolk added 13.

 

NW Cabarrus     11    10    19    21    — 61

Carson                 25    20    16   18    — 79

NWC — Jordan Gonder 17, Woolfolk 13, Rowe 9, S. Brown 8, Justin Gonder 6, Lee 4, E. Brown 2, Walker 2.

CARSON — Mills 25, Perry 22, Drye 18, Neve 10, Williams 2, Ball 2.