They're up by 2

Keeping up with one Jones, plus the West Caldwell High boys, is not an easy thing to do.

With junior guard Kendall Jones scoring nine of their first 11 points to set a tone, the Warriors solidified their hold on first place in Catawba Valley Athletic 2A basketball on Wednesday afternoon.

Jones finished with 19 points and six other Warriors had six or more in a 65-53 victory at Newton-Conover.

The victory moved West Caldwell (12-2, 7-0) two games ahead of Newton-Conover (7-10, 5-2) and Bandys, who share second place, at the halfway point of the league schedule.

Jones opened the game with a 3-pointer from the right wing, and the Red Devils' Sam Royall answered that.

Then, after an inside bucket by West Caldwell's Shaquan Fogle, Jones spotted up at the same spot on the right wing and hit another 3-pointer.

On the next possession, Jones darted into the lane for a layup and was fouled. His free throw put the Warriors up 11-3 with a bit more than three minutes off the clock.

That burst started the Warriors toward 53.7-percent shooting in a game where their offensive discipline netted them many good shots.

Newton-Conover shot 46.8 percent, including nearly 60 percent in the final two quarters, but was down as many as 21 points with two minutes to play.

"He (Jones) hit some shots to get them going and they're real hard to come back on," said Newton-Conover head coach Mark Carter, whose team had a three-game win streak snapped. "They do a great job defensively, and offensively they're not going to beat themselves.

"The combination of those two makes it difficult to come back."

Leading 19-12 after one quarter, West Caldwell had nine unanswered points to start the second quarter.

When the Red Devils went 5:45 between field goals, the Warriors extended their lead to 30-15.

With a 9-0 run in the third quarter that included two rebound buckets by D.J. Dula (10 points) and ended on Chris Michaux's 3-pointer, the Warriors went up 50-28 with about two minutes left in the quarter.

Jones, who hit seven of his 11 shots, scored only two points after the half. But throughout the game, the Warriors controlled the tempo more often than the Red Devils did.

Early on, Jones stepped up just the way West Caldwell head coach Danny Anderson says he expects.
"I tell him 'You've got to establish yourself early and make them worry about you," Anderson said.

Jones' smooth play and the Warriors' pinpoint passing led to balanced scoring in their sixth straight win and ninth in 10 games.

In addition to double figures from Jones and Dula, the Warriors got eight points by Tylor Witherspoon, seven each from Jeff Battle and Michaux and six each from Fogle and Antonio Dula.

Hunter Davis had 19 points for the Red Devils, including six in the final 2:44 that helped them get within a dozen by the final horn.

The game was a clean matchup, with only 11 free throws taken – six by the Red Devils and five by the Warriors.

The big number, though, was the two-game conference lead the Warriors gained.

West Caldwell, a West Regional team five times in the last nine seasons, is going for its 30th straight state playoff appearance, and 11 of Anderson's previous 17 West Caldwell teams have won or shared league titles.

"We have to play hard to win," Anderson said of the seven-game schedule to complete the regular season. "The bottom line is if we don't we're just another team.

"I'm a purist… and you say 'OK, we can lose two' but obviously the cerebral side of you says in the back of your mind 'What if you have a bad night?'

"That's my mentality (a bad game could crop up) but we're dang sure not going to game plan for it."

NEWTON-CONOVER 55, WEST CALDWELL 20

The Red Devils outscored the Warriors 23-4 in the first eight minutes to roll to their fourth straight win and finish the first part of the league schedule unbeaten.

Newton-Conover (14-3, 7-0) has a two-game lead over second-place East Burke and Bandys with seven conference games to go.

West Caldwell had a two-game win streak snapped and dropped to 7-9, 4-3.

Tiana Littlejohn led the Red Devils with 15 points, scoring 11 of them in the second half, and Quazzy Tipps added 13 points. Tipps made two of her three 3-pointers in the first quarter.

Ravin Carter led the Warriors, who trailed 32-8 at the half, with seven points.