By Jordan Honeycutt
sports@salisburypost.com
STATESVILLE — Close games are a regular occurrence for the South Rowan Raiders –– unfortunately so are close losses.
The Raiders fell to 1-7 on the early season Tuesday in a 65-63 loss at West Iredell.
This marked South’s fifth loss by less than seven points.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” South coach John Davis said.
“I mean we looked like an NBA team out there playing with no emotion or intensity, then decided to pick it up when it was too late.”
This game had a little bit of everything including late game heroics by both teams and some tough decisions for both coaches.
Trailing 63-60, with 20 seconds left, Josh Medlin drained a 3-pointer to tie the game, inducing a West Iredell timeout.
Davis knew his Raiders had a foul to give and wanted to keep the ball out of Jalen Gray’s hands at all costs.
“I told them to not let him catch it, whatever it took,” Davis said.
Gray had scored 25 points off of swished three balls and explosive drives to the rim.
Davis’s plan backfired as Gray got the ball and was immediately fouled at half court.
“That time I wasn’t too mad because we had the foul to give and they knew if somehow he did catch it, to foul him right away,” Davis said.
The clock now showed 11.8 and West Iredell coach Benjamin Johnson was thinking the same thing as Davis ––Go to Gray.
Once again, Gray broke free and received the pass and turned for the goal, drawing a crowd of South defenders towards him.
Gray then dumped the ball off to Kam Summers underneath the basket and Summers laid it up for the lead with about seven seconds remaining.
Instead of calling his last timeout, Davis instructed his guys to rush it up the court for a last chance.
Guard Shawn Spry raced toward the South basket gaining attention from Warrior defenders and passed the ball to Houston Allen on the wing behind the arc.
Allen drove a few steps and hoisted a desperation floater from left of the key that clanged off the rim at the buzzer.
“It was just a poorly executed last play,” Davis said.
“I didn’t call the timeout because seven seconds is plenty of time to get it up the court and get a good shot, but we didn’t want a floater from a post player.”
Medlin and forward Nathan Lambert each led the Raiders in scoring with 14 points apiece.
Lambert had been having his way inside, but hardly touched the ball in the fourth quarter.
Gray’s 25 and Summers 23 led the way for the Warriors.
“Im really happy about this one,” Johnson said.
“That was a hard-fought game and Jalen and Kam worked so hard to get their looks tonight, but that’s what they do every night. We just need to keep making smart plays and slow down at the end of a game.”
SOUTH ROWAN (63) — Lambert 14, Medlin 14, Sherrill 9, Neal 8, Allen 7, Tyler 4, Spry 3, Buchannan 3, Parker 1, Washington.
WEST IREDELL (65) — J.Gray 25, Summers 23, Ellis 7, Davidson 6, Phifer 3, Gibbs 1, Boggs, Borders, DJ Gray.
S. Rowan 15 23 15 10 — 63
W. Iredell 16 15 20 14 — 65