Staff report

GRANITE QUARRY — East Rowan’s boys basketball team finally got its season started on Wednesday with a respectable 68-53 loss to Concord.

Concord destroyed East twice last season, so a 15-point loss was encouraging and a step forward for the Mustangs.

“Well, we definitely looked a like team playing its first game — it was Concord’s fourth,” said Trey Ledbetter who is making a comeback as East’s head coach after a hiatus. “But it was good for us to get to play guys wearing a different color jersey, and our guys cane take a lot of positives away from it. I don’t think Concord is as big as they were last year, but they’re still fast, still a very good team.”

Concord (3-1, 1-0) took control with a 25-point second quarter and led 37-21 at halftime.

East made a nice run in the third quarter, but the Spiders settled down and finished off the South Piedmont Conference victory.

“We cut into their lead, but then our youth showed,” Ledbetter said. “Live-ball turnovers killed us. They turned those into points.”

Logan Bradley made four 3-pointers and scored 14 for the Mustangs, Freshman Brady Ailshie had a big fourth quarter and scored 13.

Kyzer Coleman and Jayden Beyan scored 13 each to lead Concord. The Spiders put five in double digits.

“We didn’t shoot the ball as well as we needed to,” Ledbetter said. “The goal was to score in the mid-60s, and if we’d done that, we would have been right there. There’s a lot for us to work on.”

East plays a good North Stanly squad on Thursday night.

Concord     12    25   17    14    —  68

East             7      14   16    16    — 53

Concord — Coleman 13, Beyan 13, Reid 12, Byrd 10, Weatherspoon 10, Rushmeyer 5, Glanton 4, Treadwell 1.

East — Bradley 14, Ailshie 13, Krider 7, Raiti 6, Thomas 6, Reid 4, Butler 3.