Salisbury holds off Central boys
Thu. February 16, 2012 at 11:19 p.m. | By Mike Duprez
Salisbury's John Mark Petty (left) and Central Davidson's John Hanes battle for a rebound during their game Thursday night at West Davidson. (Photo by Donnie Roberts/The Dispatch)
TYRO | Central Davidson had a deep hole to climb out of, and the Spartans almost made it. But almost wasn’t enough.
Third-seeded Salisbury survived nearly squandering an 18-point lead before holding on to beat the second-seeded Spartans 52-46 in the semifinals of the Central Carolina Conference tournament on Thursday at West Davidson’s Crim Court.
When the Spartans’ John Hanes hit a 3-pointer with less than two minutes to go to cap an 8-0 run, Salisbury’s lead was down to 47-44. Then the Hornets’ Tion McCain blew a driving layup and the Spartans had the ball back with plenty of time to make something happen. But Hanes hurried a contested 3-pointer, the Hornets got the rebound and this time McCain’s try at a layup fell through the net, making it 49-44 with 1:10 left.
And that proved to be the game-changer. McCain hit a pair of free throws with 37 seconds left to put it out of reach.
“We take stupid shots,” said Central coach Brian Hege. “Down three and we’re jacking up 3s instead of trying to get to the line. Those are not good shots in those situations. We take a 3, they get a long rebound and it’s a five-point game.”
Salisbury will take it, that’s for sure. The Hornets (12-13) clinched the CCC’s No. 2 seed for the state playoffs, which means they’ll be at home for the first round.
“That’s huge,” said Salisbury coach Jason Causby. “Any time you don’t have to travel in the state playoffs, it definitely helps to have the home crowd behind you.”
It’s just the opposite for Central (17-7), which seemingly had a hold on the No. 2 seed.
“It is what it is,” Hege said. “We had a chance to lock up the No. 2 seed two weeks ago and we didn’t do it. So now we’re stuck with what we’ve got. We’re going to the playoffs and we may play Salisbury again.”
B.J. Woods, Tion McCain and Tony Nunn all scored 12 points to lead Salisbury.
The Hornets built their big lead in the first half after Central center Greg Mininni picked up two early fouls. That left the Spartans a body short for trying to contain the 6-foot-8 Nunn, who scored on three layins. Salisbury led 17-6 after the first quarter.
Woods buried a pair of 3-pointers from the wing to help the Hornets extend to a 31-13 lead with 1:25 to play in the half. Central got it down to 31-18 on Hanes’ layup at the horn.
The Spartans whittled the lead down to 38-31 as Mininni, who had a game-high 13 points, worked his way inside for a pair of layups.
Salisbury parried that threat and pushed the margin back to 11 at 42-31 when Woods leaped to intercept a pass and drove in for an uncontested layup.
Forrest Reynolds, who scored 10 points, started Central’s last push with a 3-pointer from the top of the circle. Nunn made a pair of free throws but Will Ramsey hit a 3-pointer as the Spartans kept coming. Then Chris Pompey, who had 11 points, picked off an errant Salisbury pass and drove in for a layup, cutting the lead to 47-41.
In the end, Salisbury’s big early lead was enough.
“We played pretty well in the first half and I knew Brian would make some adjustments,” Causby said. “I knew he would fire his kids up and they would come out hard in the second half. They made a run at us and we knew it was going to happen. It was a matter of whether we were able to weather the storm. We have yet to play a complete 32 minutes, so we know how to play from behind and we know how to play when the lead gets tight.”
Salisbury will face Lexington in the championship game at 7:30 Friday night at West.
Mike Duprez can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 218 or mike.duprez@the-dispatch.com.