North boys wilt down stretch

Tue. February 07, 2012 at 11:30 p.m. | By Bruce Wehrle

WELCOME | S’nuff said.

Just when the North Davidson boys thought they had something going, they forgot to adjust. Subsequently the Black Knights dropped a 60-45 Central Piedmont Conference decision to first-place Mount Tabor Tuesday on senior night at Pete Jones Gymnasium.

The Knights had just taken a 31-29 lead midway in the third period when Mount Tabor’s Matty Madigan canned a 3-pointer to put the Spartans up 32-31.

Then, on three consecutive possessions down the court, the Knights had three layup attempts swatted, snuffed and rejected by the Spartans’ lanky interior defense.

By the time the period ended, North had scored just four more points and trailed 43-35.

“We had several shots in the third quarter where they (Mount Tabor) just erased them,” lamented North coach Kevin King. “And a couple of them were open shots. At least, the guy who had the ball must have thought he was open because he (Deion Robinson) came from behind and blocked it.

“But you have to make adjustments,” said King. “You have to understand that there’s a guy out there who’s just going to erase it. And we didn’t make that adjustment.

“The other thing is that you’ve got to see your teammate who he (the defender) came off of, because he wasn’t guarding you originally,” said King. “So you’ve got to make the bounce pass or that kick back, which is what we did in the first half, which is why we had the lead at halftime.”

Indeed, the Knights played well in the first half, frustrating the Spartans with an annoying zone defense.

“We gave up 21 points in the first quarter and then we went zone, and the zone bothered them,” said King, whose team is now 2-7 in the CPC, 8-14 overall. “But the thing about the zone is that you’ve got to score. You’ve got to be able to score enough points to sprint back into it.

“They killed us in transition in the first quarter, and then they killed us in transition again in the fourth quarter.”

North trailed 46-40 with 4:10 to go in the fourth period, but then scored just one more field goal the rest of the way.

Shy Tuttle led the Knights with 13 points while Chase Mitchell pumped in 12, including three 3-pointers in the first half.

Mount Tabor, behind Robinson’s 24 points and 12 more from Madigan, improved to 7-2 in the league, 16-8 overall.