BOYS' BASKETBALL: Spring Creek topples Rosewood

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on February 6, 2017 9:59 AM

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By RUDY COGGINS

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During pre-game warm-ups, Dominique Morse collided with a teammate and injured his back as he landed on the floor.

Morse lay motionless.

Stunned and speechless, his Spring Creek teammates gathered around him in silence. The Rosewood coaching staff attended to Morse and SC head coach Taylor Jones told his squad "we have to move on."

The Gators, not surprisingly, showed their concern and needed a few minutes -- 10 to be exact -- to find their rhythm without a key starter on the hardwood.

"That hurt," Jones said. "You could tell that our boys were concerned about him early and they kept looking back over there. I said you 'got to keep playing, you got to keep playing.' That's how much they care about each other, which is awesome."

Rosewood played with energy, sharply moved the ball and capitalized on Morse's absence to build an 11-point lead after the opening quarter.

Spring Creek retaliated with an intense-filled second period, grabbed a slim lead at halftime and eventually claimed a 54-46 victory Friday evening. The Gators (16-5 overall) rose to 11-1 in Carolina 1-A Conference play and reduced their magic number to "1" to clinch at least a share of the league title -- their second in the past three seasons.

Najee Young's 3-pointer gave the Gators their first lead, 14-13, midway through the second quarter. Tahj Edwards' layup off Young's assist pushed SC ahead 22-20 at the break.

"I don't know how we were up at the half, to be honest with you," Jones said. "It was amazing."

Young and Cameron Jones did considerable damage in the third quarter. Young tallied 11 of his game-high 19 points and Jones wiped the glass for nine rebounds.

The Eagles (4-15, 4-7) struggled to regain their composure, and fell victim to either turnovers or watched open shots rim out of the basket.

SC led 41-32 after three periods.

Rosewood closed the gap to 43-36 with 5:18 left in the final quarter. However, the Eagles failed to convert on nine consecutive possessions that included four missed field goals and three turnovers.

"We could have trimmed the lead down and made it into a game there at the end," Eagles head coach Daniel Mitchell said. "There was that stretch where we struggled because we were getting some stops on defense."

Chance Howard's steal and assist to Jonathan Peacock closed the gap to 45-40 with 1:20 remaining. A technical foul for touching the ball out of bounds led to five points and Young's drive to the basket pushed the lead to 52-43.

"I think he's an all-area player," Jones said of Young. "Everybody now has started to run box-and-ones on him, diamond-and-ones on him. Tonight, it was no big deal because he's seen it before.

"He took open shots. We had some sets that we ran for him, but you can't teach what he did."

SC had 14 team assists on 21 field goals. Landon Smothers dished out seven assists and Jamerion Dawson had three.

Howard led RHS with 12 points. Peacock had eight. Jaikel Coley logged six points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots.