Wonders end Spiders' 22-game win streak

More than once this season, opposing basketball coaches, after beating A.L. Brown, would talk about how imposing the Wonders are, even “scary.”

On the last night of the regular season, the Wonders’ potential became reality.

Playing on Senior Night at Bullock Gym before a large crowd that provided roars which might have been envied at the Roman Colosseum, the Wonders handed previously undefeated Concord a 58-49 loss, ending the Spiders’ school record winning streak at 22.

This from a team that started the South Piedmont Conference season 2-6 and needed the stunning victory to finish 7-7 in league play.

After Tevin Stark scored 27 points and Concord shot 31 percent, jubilant Wonders’ fans stormed the court and saluted their team, which had lost at Northwest Cabarrus three days earlier.

It was the peak on a season that has been up and down.

“We’ve had kind of a roller coaster season,” said Wonders coach Shelwyn Klutz. “I felt like yesterday in practice they were really focused. We played well and kept our composure to the end.”

Concord’s last lead was 5-2 as the Wonders answered the bell and didn’t falter.

Stark swished a difficult fallaway jumper from the baseline to start the scoring. Early in the second quarter he dunked twice as the Wonders opened a 19-7 lead. His 3-pointer with six seconds left in the half provided a 26-17 halftime lead.

“Phenomenal,” Klutz said. “Phenomenal.”

In the third quarter, Stark scored eight points and Braxton Waddell and Derrick Copeland contributed a 3-pointer each.

Mike Carr added 11 points in the win, six of them in the fourth quarter.

The SPC champion Spiders’ usually excellent shooting was absent. While Concord (22-1, 13-1) made five threes, the Spiders missed shot after shot (15 of 48 all told), while the Wonders hit 49 percent (21 of 43) of their field goals.

Each team had only eight turnovers, but one of Concord’s came in the final 28 seconds when the Spiders trailed by five.

From the foul line, Concord was 14 of 17, while the Wonders were 12 of 15.

Darren Black led the Spiders with 19 points and Connor Burchfield scored 13, including 10 in the fourth quarter.

The Wonders (15-8) led by as many as 14 points in the third quarter.

Concord rallied and four times was within three points late. But on only one of those possessions did they have a chance to tie the score. A 3-pointer missed the mark.

Key baskets for the Wonders at the end were Waddell’s reverse lay-up, Stark’s lay-up (his only basket in the final quarter) and a pair of huge follow shots by Keen Johnson.

“He was a beast,” Klutz said of Johnson’s inside play.

Only five players scored for each side.

Stark, a junior said the surprise win over their archrival was a matter of the Wonders playing as a team. “We just played together,” he said.

With a lot of intensity and a minimum of mistakes.

“Concord-Kannapolis game,” Spiders coach Scott Brewer said. “Everybody plays the Spiders better than they play anybody else. We’ve been taking everybody’s best shot, 23 straight games. Finally tonight, some shots didn’t fall for us.

“I’m almost relieved. It’s hard to win 32 in a row. We’ve got one of the banners we want. Can’t nobody take it away. And we’re going after another one.

“I told my guys tonight before the game, we’re playing for a Snickers bar, that’s all this means. Go out and have fun. Give Kannapolis all the credit for the energy they played with on Senior Night. It was a special night for them.”

Of Stark, Brewer said: “We made him look all-world, especially in the first half. I think he had 17 and we had 17. We did a poor job of guarding him. We did a bad job finding him. He’s a good player.”

So far in 2012, Klutz has notched his 200^th career win and ended a 19-game losing streak to the Spiders that dated back to 2004.

“We wanted to win this for Coach Klutz,” Stark said.

The Wonders did, on a night they will long remember.