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Trojans finish strong vs. South Rowan

By Paul Hershey | Independent Tribune

Published: February 11, 2009

KANNAPOLIS — After three straight sub-par games, Northwest Cabarrus head coach Daniel Jenkins was looking for better performance Wednesday night to take into the postseason.
It took a little while, but the Trojans provided just that a dominant second half in a 74-53 victory over rival South Rowan in the North Piedmont Conference finale.
Northwest overcame an 11-point deficit early in the second half before outscoring the Raiders 47-23 in the final two quarters.
"Our big thing was our intensity was okay (in the first half), but I don't think it was where it should've been," Jenkins said. "Part of it could just be getting wrapped up in the hoopla of Senior Night. After you play a half, you kind of realize it's basketball."
The biggest thing in basketball is making shots, and Northwest also did a much better job of that in the second half.
The Trojans made 21 of 30 field-goal attempts in the last two quarters after hitting just 11 of 31 in the first two periods.
In particular in the first half, Northwest failed to finish on numerous chances inside.
"We were too concerned about getting fouled and then trying to make the layup, instead of let's make the layup and see what happens after that," Jenkins said. "It was just a little focus thing that I thought they did a good job of tweaking."
Trailing by three at the break, the Trojans made 8 of their first 10 shots in the third quarter to take control.
Garrett West had five points and one assist in an quick 8-0 spurt for a 45-36 lead.
It was 54-46 heading into the fourth quarter and South scored the first basket.
But Northwest responded with 18 straight points to run away from the Raiders.
Six different Trojans scored in the onslaught, with Stephen Kiser contributing six points and Juwan Reid four.
"We don't have a bunch of all-around basketball players, but we've got a lot of guys that do a few things well," Jenkins said. "When they understand their role and believe that if they do role, everybody else is going to do theirs, we're a pretty good team."
For the game, Kiser and Jordan Brand each had 12 points to lead four Northwest players in double figures. Reid totaled 11 points and West 10. Kiser had 10 of his point in the second half, while West scored nine of his in the last two quarters.
Post players Ira Hines and Gavin Billings combined for 14 more points in the win.
"We wanted to take advantage of our size and almost force the ball inside," Jenkins said.
South, which scored 107 points in an overtime win over Statesville on Monday, struggled shooting the ball throughout.
Still, the Raiders had an early 23-12 lead before Northwest clawed back to within three by halftime on a layup by Billings and a 3-pointer by Jeff Felton.
"Anything you can get positive going into halftime to come out with is good," Jenkins said.
Steven Johnson scored a game-high 20 points for the Raiders, while leading scorer Hunter Morrison had 11.
The NPC tournament begins Friday with the bottom four teams playing to advance to Monday's quarterfinal round.
Northwest will be the No. 3 seed and host a game Monday night.
"Our guys knew win or lose, we were still going to be third seed and we didn't want to go in with that complacency," Jenkins said. "We wanted not just a win, but we wanted a real good positive. We just hadn't played that well as team and I thought we really did a good job (tonight)."