By Bill Kiser

Salisbury Post

LANDIS — South Rowan’s boys basketball team ended a five-game losing streak last week.

But R.J. Reynolds quickly ended any hopes the Raiders had of starting a winning streak on Friday night, racing out to a 21-point halftime lead en route to an 82-69 victory.

Mark Stevenson scored 17 points and led three other players in double figures for the CPC-leading Demons (12-8,

8-1). Will Carpenter added 16 points for Reynolds, which completed a season sweep over South.

Wesley Honeycutt hit five

3-pointers and finished with a game-high 21 points for South (7-12, 2-6), which began making a game of it in the second half after going down by 24 points early in the third quarter.

Derek Davis made four

3-pointers and had 18 points and Chris Charles scored 11 for the Raiders, who pulled within 15 points entering the fourth quarter and had chances to cut Reynolds’ lead even further.

“We had opportunities, especially in the first half,” South coach John Davis said. “But we came out and played hard in the second half. If we had played that hard in the first half, the game may have been a lot closer.

“That’s what we talked to them about after the game — basketball is 32 minutes, not 16 minutes or 24 minutes.”

The Raiders stuck with Reynolds for the opening minutes of the first quarter, tying the score once and trailing by just three points (7-4) with 4:41 left.

But Stevenson hit a pair of 3-pointers during a 10-2 run that pushed the Demons’ lead into double digits for the first time. His second 3 capped the run and put Reynolds ahead 18-6 with 2:07 left.

South Rowan last cut the Demons’ lead under double digits in the closing seconds of the quarter, pulling within

20-12 with 13 seconds left. But Alex Greven nailed a 3-pointer 11 seconds later to put Reynolds ahead 23-12 at the end of the quarter.

The Demons then doubled their lead in the final two minutes of the second quarter, closing with a 14-4 run to go ahead 51-30 at the break. Their biggest lead came in the opening minutes of the third quarter, with a 6-3 run putting Reynolds up 57-33 with 6:12 remaining before South began whittling it back.

Reynolds (82) — Stevenson 17, Carpenter 16, Kirby 14, Davis 14, Greven 6, Hinton 3, Johnson 3, Samuels 3, Ingram 2, Hairston 2.

south rowan (69) — Honeycutt 21, D. Davis 18, Charles 11, Wolford 6, Daugherty 5, Caldwell 4, Haggerty 2, Morgan 2, Morrison, Shaver.

Reynolds 23 28 15 16 — 82

S. Rowan 12 18 21 18 — 69