By Bill Kiser
sports@salisburypost.com
STATESVILLE ó East Rowan guard Cole Honeycutt has been coming into his own the last two weeks.
But the Mustangs’ lone freshman stepped up big-time Tuesday night, scoring a career-high 21 points as East held off NPC foe Statesville 63-59.
Daniel Plummer added 13 points for East Rowan (7-10, 6-7), which led by as many as 13 points in the second half before Statesville mounted a comeback.
Mike Nichols scored a game-high 23 points, Jay Lackey had 12 and Nick Schofield 10 for the Greyhounds (4-14, 3-10).
In East’s first 14 games, Honeycutt had scored in just four games for a combined 14 points, with a season best of five twice.
But in his last three games, Honeycutt has been scoring more often ó eight points in a win over North Iredell on Jan. 21, and 13 in last Friday’s 75-74 loss to Northwest Cabarrus.”I’ve been getting more and more confidence,” Honeycutt said. “Coach has been telling me to keep after it.”
East Rowan needed Honeycutt to step up Tuesday.
While the Mustangs shot nearly 53 percent from the field for the game and nearly 63 percent in the first half, they also turned the ball over 19 times (eight in the fourth quarter alone) and were just 3-of-14 from the free throw line.
And that was against a short-handed Statesville team that dressed just seven players ó and played them all.
The Greyhounds managed to tie the score at 17-17 at the end of the first quarter and pull ahead 23-19 early in the second.
That’s when Honeycutt began to step up. He hit a jumper, 3-pointer and free throw, and Chris McKenzie scored eight points, during a 22-9 run to close the quarter and pushed the Mustangs ahead 40-32.
East was ahead by 10 points midway through the fourth quarter when Statesville staged a rally. The Hounds held East to just one field goal (a Honeycutt layup) over the final 4:30, and East managed to make just one of its six free throws in the final minute.
“Statesville made me sweat the whole game,” East coach Greg McKenzie said.
“They did a great job, and they played smart. Our guys ó some of them almost looked like they were sick, but we could’ve played smarter. We want to keep getting smarter and better.”
east rowan (63) ó Honeycutt 21, Plummer 13, McKenzie 8, Ajayi 6, Mancil 4, Moore 4, Weber 4, Allen 3, Morton, Slater.statesville (59) ó Nichols 23, Lackey 12, Schofield 10, Carr 8, Gill 5, Edwards 2, Feimster 1.E. Rowan 17 23 16 7 ó 63
Statesville 17 15 12 15 ó 59