By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — When Salisbury senior Jayden “Juke” Harris scored 41 points recently in an 84-48 romp against Cuthbertson, it was his fifth 40-something game for the Hornets.

That tied him for first place when it comes to 40-point games for males at Rowan County public schools.

Harris also has victimized Forest Hills, South Davidson, North Rowan and Lexington for 40s during his career. The Wake Forest recruit’s career high of 45 came against Lexington.

More 40s are very likely as the Hornets move into 1A/2A Central Carolina Conference play. While Harris is averaging 32.1 points per game, the competition has actually been quite a bit better than normal. The Hornets have been taking on 4As and loaded private schools in non-conference battles.

Harris is tied for the most career 40s with Shamari Spears, a man among boys who bulled his way for games of 40, 43 (twice), 46 and 55 for the Hornets during the 2002-03 season. Spears’ 55 against East Davidson still stands as the county single-game record. Spears was a 6-foot-6 sophomore who was doing his thing for an 8-19 team, but the Hornets did win the Central Carolina Conference Tournament with Spears getting 40 in the semis and 43 in the championship game against Lexington. Then he had 46 in a first-round playoff loss to Avery County, so he had three straight 40-somethings to close the books on his career in Rowan County. He transferred to Blair Academy after that and played on two state champions in New Jersey.

While Harris and Spears made 40-point games seem sort of normal, they are still quite rare.

When Boyden High’s Frank McRae scored 42 points in a 69-52 win against Asheville in 1952, it was considered a very big deal, a feat only slightly less newsworthy than flying saucers landing on Innes Street.

Guys just weren’t supposed to score 42 in a high school basketball game, not even McRae, who was considered one of the state’s best athletes.

Tall and talented, McRae was a dominant player for his time. He also had 34-point and 32-point outbursts during the 1951-52 season for coach Derwood Huneycutt. He averaged 23.3 points per game for a team that was 12-9 while playing some of the state’s largest schools.

McRae hooped in the East-West All-Star Game in the summer of 1952, although he would find his college success on the baseball diamond at Wake Forest. He turned in a monumental performance in Omaha (5-for-5 at the plate, plus a diving catch) in Wake’s historic 7-6 win against Western Michigan for the ACC’s first  national championship in 1955.

After McRae’s historic performance, the Post did not document any more 40-point games by males for many years, although there were close calls. Bobby Rusher scored 39 for East Spencer in the 1954-55 season. Jay Ritchie, who would reach the major leagues as a pitcher, put up multiple 38s for Granite Quarry. Bill Barnes may have had a 40 for Landis, although if he did it eluded the Post record books.

By the early 1960s, schools were still segregated, but the small, all-white schools in Rowan had been consolidated into larger schools.

In the 1964-65 season, North Rowan’s David Chapman poured in 41 points against Davie County. Chapman averaged 17.8 points for a team that went 11-10 overall for coach Walt Baker, but the Cavaliers still tied for the North Piedmont Conference championship.

The next 40s that were documented by the Post were at schools for Black students.

In the 1965-66 season, Romus Jefferies put up huge numbers for the Dunbar Tigers in East Spencer. Jefferies averaged 29.6 points per game and scored 43 points against Troy.

Jefferies also brought out the best in Curtis Miller, who starred for Dunbar’s rival, the J.C. Price Red Devils.

When Price and Dunbar clashed in 1966, Jefferies scored 36 points.

Miller answered with 40, the first documented 40 by one of coach Fred Evans’ Red Devils. Miller also accounted for a 36-point night and two 35s that season and averaged more than 25 points per game. Miller’s teammate Frances Houston had a 39-point effort that season, so Miller wasn’t a one-man show.

J.C. Price played very fast in the 1960s. Rufus Agnew and Larry Boyd had some sizzling games, but they fell just short of reaching the 40 plateau.

Kenny Holt, an all-time legend who played for Evans as a sophomore at J.C. Price in 1968-69 had three games for the Red Devils in which he scored in the 30s. After J.C. Price closed in the spring of 1969, Holt was a great player at Boyden for coach Bob Pharr as a junior and senior, although Boyden played lower-scoring games in the South Piedmont Conference and normally won with scores in in the 50s or 60s. Holt’s highest-scoring game for Boyden was 29 points.

Full school integration was in place prior to the 1969-70 season.

The first 40-point outing of the modern era came from North Rowan’s James Henderson in the 1971-72 season. Henderson, a great shooter, put up 41 points against Mooresville.

Henderson is still the program’s all-time scoring leader with 1,654 points. He averaged 23.1 points as a senior for Coach Baker. That’s also still the school record. The Cavaliers finished 16-10 overall and were second in the NPC.

The next 40 was achieved by East Rowan’s Rick Vanhoy.

In the 1975-76 season, Vanhoy scored 42 against West Iredell, which had opened in 1974-75.

That was the biggest scoring game of Vanhoy’s career, by far — his second-biggest was 29 — but he was a very good player who averaged 20.3 points per game for coach Gilbert Sprinkle. That 42 by Vanhoy is still the program record at East.

That East team finished 13-12, but it won the Christmas tournament with a double-overtime thriller against West Rowan in the semis and an overtime victory against South Rowan in the championship.

There was a drought for 40-point games in the county after Vanhoy’s big night.

The 3-point line came to high school basketball in 1987-88 and changed the game forever. It also rejuvenated 40-point outings.

In the 1988-89 season, North’s Brian Paige went off for a school-record 50 points in a 92-59 wipeout of North Stanly. Paige was a prolific scorer (18.6 points per game) and had teammates such as Chris Sifford, Larry Dixon as well as the next generation’s Curtis Miller. Coached by Bob Hundley, North went 17-5 and won the CCC.

West Rowan had its first 40-point game that same season, with David Redmond pumping in an even 40 in a win against Northwest Cabarrus. Redmond’s next-biggest game that season was 27 points. He and Toby Brown both averaged 18-plus that season for a 14-7 team coached by Jack Lytton. That was the season shortened by the measles epidemic.

Bobby Phillips scored 41 points against West Stanly in 1994 to become the first male to score 40 while wearing a Salisbury Hornets jersey. The Hornets racked up 90 that night for coach Sam Gealy. That was a strong Salisbury team that won 20 games. Helping Phillips fill up the scorebook was Marvin Dixon. At least two of the Hornets who contributed a lot to that team, Bradley Taylor and Josh Brincefield, now have sons who are teammates of Juke Harris on the current Hornets.

Scooter Sherrill, Rowan’s all-time scoring leader, arrived on the scene at West Rowan in the late 1990s. Sherrill registered a famous 40 in 1997-98 to lead a comeback against North Rowan. He added a career-best 43 against Piedmont as a senior in the 1999-2000 season for coach Mike Gurley.

A number of high-scoring players would take the court over the years for Gurley. Donte Minter poured in a school-record 44 in the Salisbury gym in 2000-01. Keshun Sherrill went for an electric 41 against Carson in 2011-12. Caleb Mauldin seemed to get every rebound and totaled 43 against Central Cabarrus in 2015-16.

South Rowan joined the 40-point fun twice early in John Davis’ coaching tenure. Both 40s, believe it or not, came against Northwest Cabarrus. Damian Argrett, a late bloomer who would become an All-American at Pfeiffer, accomplished the feat in 2000. Streak-shooting bomber Doug Daugherty, who had a lightning release, burned the Trojans for 40 in the 2000-01 season.

East Rowan’s boys went 28 seasons between 40-point explosions, but the Mustangs had two during Greg McKenzie’s highly successful coaching era. Alstin Vanderford stung Statesville for 41 in the 2003-04 season and became the first Mustang to score 40 since Vanhoy in 1976.

In 2006-07, with East competing in the 4A ranks, Kenan McKenzie, the coach’s son, fired in 41 vs. West Forsyth. When McKenzie was on, he could do a pretty fair JJ Redick impression.

North Rowan added a surprise 40 last season — actually a 42 — from George Maxwell. Maxwell is a solid scorer who averaged a team-high 16 points, but that 42, fueled by a flurry of 3-pointers against West Davidson, was above and beyond his normal production.

Carson hasn’t had a 40-point effort yet.

Tre Williams scored 37 twice, including a 58-50 win against Central Cabarrus in which he accounted for 64 percent of the Cougars’ points. He also had a 37-point night against Statesville.

Nick Houston got hot and blistered West Iredell for 37 when the Warriors were competing with Carson in the North Piedmont Conference.

Darius Moose, Carson’s all-time scoring leader, was amazingly consistent, but his biggest scoring outing was 36 points. Colton Laws also had a lot of 30s, but he topped out with 35 points.

Carson has quite a bit of young talent on the current roster, but they have so many potential scorers that it’s unlikely any individual ever will score 40.

Carson coach Brian Perry had a 36 for East Rowan during his playing days.