Monday, December 31, 2012 —
The final basketball games before the Christmas holidays for the varsity teams of Stanly County took place on Tuesday night.
Four of the five schools played conference games Tuesday night, with the Albemarle girls playing a non-conference game at Sun Valley.
Friday’s Games
Girls
North Stanly 53
South Stanly 43
The North Stanly girls entered Friday's contest against South Stanly on a three game winning streak. Losing six seniors is always difficult yet the Lady Comets have been very competitive thus far in the 2012-13 campaign.
They would not have an easy time with their county rival from Norwood as the Rebel Bulls would prove to be quite a feisty challenge. At the end of the first frame, South held a 14-12 lead on 5-9 shooting from the field.
The second quarter would prove to be a reversal as Lady gave the Bulls a 41-40 lead with 6:25 left.
West Stanly immediately responded with a run of their own. Trailing 43-41, Talley hit three straight 3-pointers in a 9-1 run as the Colts led 50-44 with 3:23 left in the period.
The Colts had a chance to ice the game with a five-point lead and free throws in the final 31.9 seconds, but hit 1-of-6 at the line while South got a Culp three-pointer and two Culp free throws in the final seconds. West’s one make at the line in the final seconds, from Courtney Moses, proved to be the difference.
After two West misses at the line with 3.6 on the clock, South’s Ashlyn Whitley got the ball passed to her and she tried a last-second heave but she could not get the shot off with pressure from a Colt defender and West had the win.
Both teams return to conference play this week with South Stanly travelling to West Montgomery and West Stanly going to Forest Hills.
SS 14 13 6 22 55
WS 11 8 21 14 56
SS – Chelsey Culp 23, Bailyn Allen 10, Clancy Russell 10, Whitley 6, Benjamin 4,
WS – Sarah Talley 15, Webb 9, Wilson 8, Summers 6, Chapman 4, Brown 3, Fincher 3, Morgan 3.
Boys
Albemarle 78
North Stanly 38
The last time that the Albemarle boys’ basketball squad lost to North Stanly was Dec. 29, 2009, when the Comets won 46-45 over the Bulldogs.
Albemarle got a big night from Deon Christian and earned their seventh straight win over North Stanly 78-38 in the second game of the County Classic at West Stanly on Thursday.
Christian nearly missed a double-double with 23 points and nine rebounds and was praised for his efforts by Albemarle head coach Al Andrew, who said that Christian “was active on defense and attacked the rim offensively.” Christian was 10-of-18 from the field and 3-of-3 at the foul line.
Terrace Ellis added 11 points for the Bulldogs and three Albemarle players (Lee Autry, Trey Nivens and T’Kyle Williams) had eight points each.
Kasey Caulder led North Stanly with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field. T.J. Smith added seven points and a team-high eight rebounds.
Leading 11-5 with just over three minutes left in the period, the Bulldogs went on a 9-2 run over the rest of the first period to lead by 13 after one quarter.
Christian then scored eight of Albemarle’s second-quarter points while holding North to 3-of-9 shooting in the period to lead 38-15 at halftime.
In the second half, the Bulldogs continued to shoot the ball well, hitting 16-of-35 from the field (45.7 percent) while North was 8-of-24 (33.3 percent). Albemarle finished the game 32-of-71 overall (45.1 percent) and North Stanly hit 15-of-47 from the field (31.9 percent).
A 20 18 24 16 78
NS 7 8 12 11 38
A – Deon Christian 23, Terrace Ellis 11, Autry 8, Nivens 8, Williams 8, Blanton 5, Crowder 4, Dumas 3, Brown 2, Ridenhour 2, Baldwin 2, Currie 2.
NS – Kasey Caulder 12, Smith 7, Misenheimer 5, Sylvester 5, Reid 4, Greene 2, Gibson 1.
West Stanly 61
South Stanly 40
The final game at West Stanly on Thursday came down to free-throw shooting as the Colts and South Stanly Rebel Bulls were whistled for 51 total fouls in a 61-40 win for West.
B.J. Hill led the Colts with 19 points and added eight rebounds and seven assists, while Charlie Eudy had a double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds.
Wes Smith led the Bulls with 16 points.
The Bulls shot an even 50 percent from the charity stripe (14-of-28), while West was 24-of-38 from the foul line.
“We are still struggling at times being careless with the ball, and we did not shoot very well, but I thought we controlled the boards and that was the difference in the game,” West head coach John Thompson said.
SS 14 14 13 9 40
WS 18 15 15 13 61
SS – Wes Smith 16, Johnson 8, T. Smith 5, Richardson 5, Burris 3, Harris 2, Granados 1.
WS – B.J. Hill 19, Charlie Eudy 13, Whitley 9, Hathcock 8, McCormick 6, Grubbs 6.
