By Jordanna Clark

sports@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Just like Thursday’s game against Davie County, North Stanly came out hot once again. However, this time, the Comets managed to hold onto the lead.
Led by a 14-2 run to open the game, North Stanly held off West Rowan, 56-51, on
Friday afternoon in the Dale’s Sporting Goods/Sam Moir Christmas Classic at Goodman Gym.
“This tournament is really good competition from bottom to the top no matter who you’re playing, so we knew that we had better come ready to play or we were going to get handed a loss,” North Stanly coach Chris Misenheimer said. “These guys have to
understand that each and every possession counts.”
Fifth-seeded North Stanly (6-4) made sure that they came ready to play in the first period by holding eighth-seeded West Rowan (4-7) to five points.
After being down, 17-5, at the start of the second period, the Falcons cut that deficit in half with a pair of free throws by senior Tyrese Lawrence with 1:11 left to play until halftime.
Sixteen seconds later, Bryson Childress added a pair of free throws of his own to give the Comets a 23-15 halftime lead.
West Rowan 6-8 senior Caleb Mauldin, who was called for his third foul with 4:34
left  in the second period and was taken out of the game, checked back in with five
minutes to go in the third period. A little less than two minutes later, Mauldin was fouled going up and still managed to hit the shot. He then completed the
three-point play to give the Falcons a 28-27 advantage — their first lead of the game.
“We don’t ever like to have Caleb out of the line-up and that’s always a problem if he
gets in foul trouble,” West Rowan coach Mike Gurley said. “I thought that we fought
from that point on. When he got back in the game, he was part of the equation again and I’m very happy with the effort.”
North Stanly entered the fourth period with a 34-31 lead and did not allow West to take the lead again. With 34 seconds left to play, senior Martavio Rankin hit a 3-pointer to pull the Falcons within one point, but Rankin fouled Childress with 22 seconds left to play.
Childress led the Comets with 26 points and finished 6-for-11 from the field. He nailed four-of-eight 3-pointers and went 10-for-10 from the free throw line.
“He’s without a doubt our commander on the floor,” Misenheimer said of Childress. “He gets us what we want. Part of the reason for the lull in the second half is that West made adjustments and took the ball out of his hands. Other people had to step up and I’m proud that they did.”

Jason Doerr followed Childress with 14 points and led the boards for the Comets
with seven rebounds.
Although Mauldin was whistled for his third foul early on, he finished with 18 points and was one rebound away from earning a double-double. Lawrence did put on a double-double performance with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
“I’m very happy with the effort,” Gurley said. “We did fight, but we made too many
mistakes at the wrong time. You can’t fault these young men on how hard they played.”

NORTH STANLY (56) – Childress 26, Doerr 14, Lowder 6, Cord 3, Clark 3, Lamp 2,
Smith 2, Watkins, Stepp.
WEST ROWAN (51) – Mauldin 18, Lawrence 14, Rankin 9, Stolsworth 6, Joseph 4,
Dixon, Tadlock, Myers.

West Rowan        5    10   16    20 — 51

North Stanly      17     6    11    22 — 56