By Bret Strelow

Salisbury Post

LANDIS — Leading scorer Wesley Honeycutt returned after missing two games because of a left knee injury, but the good news ceased late in the first half of South Rowan’s matchup with North Davidson.

The homestanding Raiders fell 70-52 on Friday night. They led by six with three minutes left in the second quarter, but North Davidson (12-4, 2-3 CPC) closed the half with a 17-6 run.

Derek Davis hit a 3-pointer one minute into the second half, but the Raiders (6-8, 1-2) didn’t manage another field goal during a quarter in which they were outscored 15-5.

“For roughly 14 minutes in the first half, we did what we wanted to do — controlled the tempo, played solid defense,” South coach John Davis said. “The last two minutes, it’s turnovers, people trying to do things we don’t want them to do. Next thing you know we go down five at halftime.

“Third quarter, we light the scoreboard up for five points. A 1-2-2 or 1-2-1-1 press, that’s stuff we’ve seen before. We’re trying to run from the basketball instead of coming to it.”

South trailed 31-28 when it regained possession under the Black Knights’ basket with 4.4 seconds left in the first half. North Davidson guard Korey Carlton corralled a deflected pass from the corner and tossed a one-handed shot toward the rim as he faded toward midcourt. Teammate Matt Gryder caught the wild attempt in mid-air and tipped it in for a five-point edge.

South committed eight turnovers and attempted only five shots in the first six minutes of the third quarter, when North Davidson established a 46-31 lead.

The Raiders pulled within 52-42 with 5:54 left on a bucket by guard Elliott Hagerty, who finished with a career-high 14 points. North Davidson needed only 38 seconds to push its lead to 18, and its 15-1 run covered 94 seconds.

“We played the second half like we played about the last two minutes of the first half,” North Davidson coach Frederick Hurt said. “We played hard. I felt like the first quarter and five minutes, we just kind of floated through and were lethargic about things.”

Honeycutt, who averaged 17.0 points in South’s first 11 games, drilled a 3-pointer in the first 30 seconds of Friday’s contest.

He played with a large brace on his knee and scored all eight of his points in the first half.

“I’ve been wanting to get back and play, but it still hurts a little bit,” he said. “I can feel it on my jump shot and can’t elevate on my rebounds. Hopefully it will be fine if I take it easy over the weekend.”

*

NOTES: South went 11-for-30 at the line and is 17-for-52 in its last two games. … Hagerty has enjoyed two straight solid outings — he had eight points in a loss to R.J. Reynolds. … Chris Pagentine led North Davidson with 17 points.

NORTH DAVIDSON (70) — Pagentine 17, Hurt 11, Gryder 11, Taylor 7, Burgess 7, Reich 5, Niver 5, Carlton 4, Frady 2, Carter 1, Goff, Shell.

SOUTH ROWAN (52) — Hagerty 14, Davis 11, Honeycutt 8, Morgan 6, Wolford 5, Doby 3, Charles 2, Shaver 2, Daugherty 1, Caldwell, Bettis, Morrison.

N. Davidson 12 21 15 22 — 70

S. Rowan 12 16 5 19 — 52

*

Contact Bret Strelow at 704-797-4258 or bstrelow@salisburypost.com.

“We’d go to a huddle at the free-throw line, and we didn’t have much energy at all for a team to be fighting for the standings.”

The extra pass they make down on the offensive end makes you run ragged. Once we went man-to-man against them, I knew we were in trouble.

He settles us down an awful lot. Up there at Reynolds the other night, we didn’t have much of an answer offensively. With him out on the court, he’s an offensive threat and makes teams respect that. He does little things on the court people don’t notice. We didn’t want to see his season end with a knee injury, and when his knee hyperextended, the fear was it could be some damage in there. The soreness is out of it.

Game-time decision, withers checked out lateral movement in hall

Honeycutt

I’ve been wanting to get back and play, but it still hurts a little bit. I can feel it on my jump shot and can’t elevate on my rebounds.

Hopefully it will be fine if I take it easy on the weekend.

“We played the second half like we played about the last two minutes of the first half,” North Davidson coach Frederick Hurt said. “We played hard. I felt like the first quarter and five minutes, we just kind of floated through and were lethargic about things.

“We’d go to a huddle at the free-throw line, and we didn’t have much energy at all for a team to be fighting for the standings.”

*

NOTES: South went 11-for-30 from the line and is 17-for-52 in its last two games. …

NORTH DAVIDSON (70) — Pagentine 17, Hurt 11, Gryder 11, Taylor 7, Burgess 7, Reich 5, Niver 5, Carlton 4, Frady 2, Carter 1, Goff, Shell.

SOUTH ROWAN (52) — Hagerty 14, Davis 11, Honeycutt 8, Morgan 6, Wolford 5, Doby 3, Charles 2, Shaver 2, Daugherty 1, Caldwell, Bettis, Morrison.

N. Davidson 12 21 15 22 — 70

S. Rowan 12 16 5 19 — 52

*

Contact Bret Strelow at 704-797-4258 or bstrelow@salisburypost.com.