By Bret Strelow
bstrelow@salisburypost.com
GRANITE QUARRY ó Lake Norman’s boys took care of one Rowan County opponent, and their highly anticipated matchup with another is scheduled for tonight.
East Rowan’s Daniel Plummer led three double-digit scorers with 19 points, but the Mustangs fell 97-67 to visiting Lake Norman on Tuesday.
Jordan Moore and Caleb Allen had 13 points apiece for East, which enjoyed its best offensive showing since a 71-58 victory against North Davidson in its season opener.
Paul Larsen (19 points), Matt Denyes (15), Matt Eller (14) and Gabe Mercer (14) scored in double figures for the unbeaten Wildcats.
“They’re going to score ó we know that,” East coach Greg McKenzie said. “We’re not bad defensively; they’re really good offensively. Conversely, I’d bet Coach (Brandon) Jolly would say they need to get better on defense. We couldn’t match baskets, but I thought we had a lot of opportunities we didn’t take advantage of in the first half when the game was close.
“In just a matter of a minute or two, if you don’t make some easy plays or you turn it over, they’re going to capitalize and all of a sudden they’re up 20.”
Mercer did all of his scoring in the first 41/2 minutes of his team’s 30-point fourth quarter, and Lake Norman came close to reaching the century mark in the NPC contest.
It missed a 3-pointer with 25 seconds left and didn’t attempt a shot on its final possession.
“Offensively we can score with anybody, but it’s just a matter of us digging in to play defense,” Jolly said. “They spread us out pretty good and made some good cuts on us.
“We didn’t have our heads into it. Hopefully we weren’t looking forward to (Wednesday).”
Lake Norman (12-0, 7-0) will play host to fellow NPC contender West Rowan (9-1, 5-0) tonight at 7 p.m. The originally scheduled matchup of varsity boys teams was postponed because of West’s run to the 3A state football title.The Falcons, who needed overtime to edge West Iredell on the road Tuesday night, have won the last five games in their series with Lake Norman. The Wildcats used 15 players against East.
“We were hoping to keep everybody’s legs fresh for (Wednesday) and tried to run in a lot of players,” Jolly said. “Hopefully (West) got a little bit of a challenge from West Iredell and maybe got worn down a little bit. I told the guys that was tomorrow and keep it at tomorrow until this game was over, and they did a pretty good job of that.
“I think (West) is like us. They’ve got a lot of weapons. They’re big, athletic and fast. They can shoot. I think it will be a toe-to-toe matchup. I’ve really not seen any weaknesses in them.”East managed only six first-half rebounds against the Wildcats but matched them with one dunk.
Plummer charged down the lane and banked in a slam attempt. Larsen had an easy look at a jam after the ball popped free from two East players vying for the same rebound.
“Larsen, he’s tough inside, and they have smart players,” McKenzie said. “They’re not outside-in. They’re inside-out on offense.”
LAKE NORMAN (97) ó Larsen 19, Denyes 15, Eller 14, Mercer 14, Smith 8, Albritton 8, Price 7, Weston 6, Graham 4, Moffett 1, Saunders 1, Canevari, Timmins, Kerr, Whalen.
EAST ROWAN (67) ó Plummer 19, Moore 13, Allen 13, Mancil 6, Weber 6, McKenzie 5, Ajayi 4, Slater 1, Grohman, Honeycutt, Morton, Torrence.
Lake Norman 27 17 23 30 ó 97
East Rowan 14 10 23 20 ó 67