Carson’s CP Perry. Brian Wilhite photo.

 

By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

 CONCORD — If Carson’s boys basketball team becomes a state-championship contender somewhere down the road, you can mark Wednesday night’s game at Northwest Cabarrus as the time and place where the wheels started to roll.

The Cougars won a tough South Piedmont Conference road game, 62-60.

They had been 0-3 in games that went to the wire, so it was a big step to come out on top.

They won against a team with three good 6-foot-4 men and an army of shooters. They won against a team that made seven 3-pointers in the second half.

They won it by taking charges and by scrapping for rebounds. They won it with defense and they won it by making nine free throws in a tension-packed fourth quarter.

The most intriguing thing about them, and the thing that is going to start attracting regional and maybe statewide attention, is they won it with freshmen Jacob Mills and CP Perry leading the charge. Two guys in the Class of 2027 combined for 40 points. A third Carson freshman, Drew Neve, who is 6-foot-4, only scored five points, but he made plays — blocking shots and taking charges.

Carson is still only 7-5 overall, but the Cougars have won their last four. They are still only 2-4 in the SPC, but they were 0-4 not long ago, so things are looking up for head coach Brian Perry, CP’s father.

Carson got off to a dream start. Perry was flying with the ball right from the tip. He found Mills and then he found Jonah Drye. It was swish and swish from, and the Cougars had the dream start on the road, the perfect storm, a 6-0 lead after two possessions. Northwest burned a timeout.

Everything went Carson’s way early except for mounting foul trouble trying to battle Northwest’s powerful posts. Northwest was ice-cold from the perimeter, and Carson was up 15-6 after a quarter.

Jordan Gonder, the best of those 6-foot-4 Trojans, a 1,000-point scorer, took it to Carson in the second quarter. He owned the paint, and the Trojans looked like the stouter team. Perry kept  the Cougars afloat with four buckets in the quarter on drives or pull-ups. He doesn’t fire a lot of 3s. His job is to create problems with his lightning first step, force help and get the ball to the shooters. Northwest had trimmed Carson’s lead to two when Perry got the ball to a wide-open Colin Ball. Ball’s second 3-pointer of the night ended the half with Carson ahead 31-26.

The Trojans (8-6, 3-4) chased Carson throughout the third quarter. They almost caught up several times. Mills made three key shots, two of them 3-pointers, to keep pushing them back. Drye  drove for a three-point play and Carson took a 46-43 lead to the final eight minutes.

Ball and Mills took charges from Gonder to slow him down some, but the Trojans were persistent and they finally got hot from the 3-point line. Four different Trojans made a 3-pointer in the final quarter.

With 6:20 left, Northwest took its first lead of the game at 49-48 on a 3-ball.

After an offensive rebound by Perry, Mills calmly made the jumper that put Carson back ahead. Northwest led for less than a minute.

With 4:25 left, after another offensive rebound by Perry provided a second chance, Mills drained a 3-pointer, his fifth, to put Carson ahead 53-49.

After that, it was mostly a matter of making free throws. Perry made five big ones in the fourth quarter, including two with 24 seconds left for a four-point lead. Drye made three big ones. Neve made the last free throw for the Cougars for a 62-57 lead with 6.5 seconds left.

Landon Rowe made a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left to set the final score at 62-60, but Northwest couldn’t stop the clock, and it was over.

“We tried to focus on Gonder and Rowe, but they’re tough,” Coach Perry said. “Gonder was tough in the first half, but Colin Ball really battled him in the second half. Jonah Drye showed great leadership and our bench guys were engaged and gave us energy. It’s a really big road win.”

Carson     15    16    15    16    — 62

NWC       6      20    17    17     — 60

CARSON — Perry 21, Mills 19, Drye 9, Ball 6, Neve 5, McGruder 2.

NWC — Jordan Gonder 16, Rowe 11, Jason Gonder 9, Lee 8, Dellinger 5, Brown 5, Woolfolk 3, Rochevot 3,