Staff report

LANDIS — Brody Thomas poured in a career-high 26 points as East Rowan’s boys basketball team stopped the program’s 14-game losing slide, while extending South Rowan’s county-record skid to 57 consecutive losses.

East won Friday’s South Piedmont Conference matchup 60-53 in South’s gym, giving Trey Ledbetter his first victory since he made his comeback as East’s head coach. The game also marked Justin Pauley’s debut as South’s head coach. Pauley was named interim coach over the Christmas break, replacing Daniel Blevins.

East (1-10, 1-4) won the game at the foul line — while the Raiders (0-12, 0-6) lost it there. The Mustangs went 16-for-25 from the stripe, while South was 6-for-20.

“It’s always fun to win,” Ledbetter said. “It was a tumultuous week for us. We’ve lost (freshman) Brady Ailshie for an extended period due to injury, and that’s devastating  because he was getting better every game. We also had to remove a few from our roster, so we pieced it together with jayvee kids. Parker McGinnis gave us a lift.”

While both teams were victory-starved, to say the least, Friday’s game was competitive and entertaining. East held the lead almost the entire game, but South refused to melt away and stayed in it until the final seconds.

Jelani King returned to action for South. Pauley is working to develop the talented youngster.

King, who entered the game about midway through the first quarter, was a factor. The long-armed post man had not played since very early in the season when he posted double-figure games against South Stanly and A.L. Brown. He scored 11 points, rebounded well, blocked five East shots and changed some more.

“King changes some things for South,” Ledbetter said. “We weren’t expecting him.”

South knew what to expect from Thomas, but couldn’t do a lot to stop him. Thomas works really hard on the offensive glass, he runs the floor, and he’s a tough driver. He’ll mix in an occasional 3-pointer and he makes free throws.

“South really focused a lot of their defense on taking Logan Bradley away, and that left some driving lanes open for Thomas,” Ledbetter said. “He took advantage.”

Thomas scored seven as East took an early 15-6 lead, but a banked-in 3-pointer by Carter Rohletter triggered a 12-0 run by the Raiders that bridged the first and second quarters. That South spree included another 3-pointer by Rohletter. Jadon Moore made two free throws for a 16-15 South lead, and then Moore made a layup for 18-15. That was high tide for the Raiders.

Thomas made a 3-pointer to stop South’s run. Then Thomas, who scored nine in the second quarter, and Aiden Lino got on a roll for the Mustangs. When Lino made a 3-pointer to close the first half, the Mustangs led by a dozen at 33-21.

East’s lead didn’t stay in double digits long. Corbin Goodman made two 3-pointers early in the third quarter for South to make it a six-point game. East guard Corbin Krider got five quick points with a 3-pointer and a stick-back, and the Mustangs pushed the lead back to nine, 41-32, after three quarters.

South fought back within five points a number of times in the fourth quarter, but the Mustangs always made a play or a shot to keep South at bay. King scored eight in the fourth quarter. Rohletter made two more 3-pointers,. Brooks Overcash made a 3-point bomb from the corner for South’s final points. Overcash’s shot made it 58-53 with 18.6 seconds left.

Bradley’s first points of the night came on a 3-pointer with five minutes left that pushed a five-point East lead to eight, and he also made a tough floater.

With 1:46 left, East missed on a fast-break opportunity while leading by five, but Thomas was following the play, snared the rebound, got fouled, and made his first free throw. He missed the second one, but Jaden Reid made a tough follow shot while swerving around King to push the lead back to eight again.

“Ginormous shot by Logan and that was a really big play by Reid,” Ledbetter said.

Rohletter made four 3-pointers to account for most of his 14 points. South made seven 3s to East’s four.

East Rowan    15   18   8   19   — 60

South Rowan  11   10  11   21    — 53

EAST — Thomas 26, Lino 12, Krider 9. Bradley 5, Reid 5, Shive 2, McGinnis 1.

SOUTH — Rohletter 14, Moore 11, King 11, Overcash 7, Goodman 6, Littlejohn 4.