Emari Russell (1) and Dyzarious Carpenter (2).

North head coach Jason Causby.

 

By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — North Rowan’s boys basketball team emerged from the Dale’s Sporting Goods Sam Moir Christmas Classic with two wins and some momentum.

North scrapped for a 56-52 win against Central Davidson in a tough third-place game on Saturday evening at Catawba College.

“Great team win as we move into the second half of the season,” North head coach Jason Causby said. “Anytime you can come out of the Moir with two wins it’s an accomplishment.”

The biggest challenge for third-seeded North (5-3) was to come back emotionally as well as physically from the draining semifinal loss to rival Salisbury that occurred 24 hours earlier.

“Win or lose, it’s hard to come back from a rivalry game with Salisbury and trying to come back the very next day made it an even bigger challenge,” Causby said. “I think you could see some of that with the way Salisbury started out slow against Carson in the championship game. We challenged our guys to move on from Salisbury and get off to a good start against Central Davidson and we accomplished that.”

North had lost at home to Central Davidson, but coaches and players learned from that game. North was able to make adjustments and took away some of the things that Central likes to do.

Central Davidson led 10-4 in the early going, but North put together a 9-0 run to get control. The Cavaliers got a spark off the bench from Jah Sullivan and KaMarhi Feamster in the second quarter and led by as many as 14 points. The Cavaliers took a 35-26 lead to halftime.

Then the Spartans (6-6), who had a lost a tough semifinal game with Carson, made a strong run to start the second half.

“Our third quarters have been awful all year and we’ve tried to find ways to remedy that, but we had another poor showing in the third,” Causby said.

Central went ahead. North finally stabilized. It was 46-all with two minutes to go.

Jeremiah Alford only made one shot, but it was a huge one — a game-changing 3-pointer from the corner. It was only the second 3 of the game for North.

North made free throws to go up by four, but Central banked in a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left to cut North’s lead to 53-52.

Dyzarious Carpenter made two clutch free throws for a three-point lead before Emari Russell made the clinching free throw that put the Cavaliers up by four.

“We needed this one,” Russell said. “We had to pay them back for beating us earlier this season. It was a very tough game. We won it with defense and by making our free throws.”

North was 18-for-25 from the foul line, while Central was 7-for-12.

Eli Tysinger scored 15 for the Spartans. He got eight during Central’s run in the third quarter. Paxton Flowe made four 3-pointers and scored 14. North did a good job against high-scoring Carson Hulsizer, who racked up 21 against Carson in the semifinals. The Cavaliers held him to two 3s and nine points.

Russell led North with 22 points, 10 from the foul line, and scored 67 in the tournament. He was named to the all-tournament team.

Carpenter scored 12 and totaled 49 in the tournament.

Causby praised Feamster, Sullivan and Alford for the impact they had off the bench. Alford had missed the Salisbury game following an asthma attack.

Central Davidson    13   13   17   9   — 52

North Rowan           17   18    6   15   — 56

CENTRAL — Tysinger 15, Flowe 14, Hulsizer 9, Bush 6, Harper 4, Henderson 3, Clendenin 1.

NORTH — Russell 22, Carpenter 12, Williams 7, Sullivan 6, Feamster 4, Alford 3, Polk 2.