Cougars shut down Maiden, advance to Classic semis

Alexander Central High’s boys held Maiden scoreless for nearly seven minutes in the second half on Tuesday en route to a 58-44 basketball victory in first round of the Catawba Valley Classic.

The third-seeded Cougars (7-3) trailed only once early on, but looked sluggish at times before winning to reach a  Wednesday semifinal (7:30 p.m.) at Hickory High against South Caldwell (4-5).

With his team ahead 9-5 three minutes into the game, Alexander Central head coach Ed Wills pulled all five of his starters. The bench responded with a tough man-to-man defensive effort that shut down the Blue Devils’ half-court offense.

“I didn’t think we were very focused to start the game,” said Wills.  “So we just brought in a different group to see if we could bring some energy and intensity and they did.”

Sixth-seeded Maiden (3-4), which plays No. 2 Fred T. Foard (8-3) in a consolation game Wednesday at 4:30 p.m at Hickory, finished the quarter with 12 turnovers and five field goals.

Meanwhile, the Cougars’ Nathan Birkendal hit three 3-pointers in the quarter, including one from the left corner at the buzzer for a 25-13 lead after eight minutes.

Trailing 32-23 at the half, the Blue Devils used the sharp shooting of Jason Gantt to make a run.

Gantt opened the second half with a long-range jumper to cut the lead to 32-26. After Alexander Central went up 37-30, Gantt hit a 25-footer, then stuck another 3-pointer from nearly the same spot to cut the lead to one with 3:38 left in the quarter.

Maiden had a chance to take the lead as Will Jenkins took a long rebound and dribbled the length of the floor, but he was called for walking prior to a layup attempt.

From there, the Cougars countered with a 2-1-2 zone defense to clamp down on the Blue Devils’ offense.

Matt Mohon (14 points) pushed the back to three with a hook shot, then Tyler Crouch finished the quarter with a nifty dribble-drive around the circle and through the lane for a layup.

Mohon scored the first eight points of the final quarter to increase the lead to 50-36 before Maiden’s Matt Johnson followed his own shot to break the scoring drought.

“We changed defenses just to give them different looks,” Wills said.  “What they were doing was bothering us a little bit.

“It was one of those games that you get tired. As the game went on and everybody got a little bit tired, we were able to get it inside and get short shots.”

Gantt hit his fifth 3-pointer to cut the lead back to 10, but Maiden got no closer.

HICKORY 63, BUNKER HILL 39

Top-seeded Hickory (9-2) looked sluggish on offense for most of the game, but still had more than enough on defense to outlast the eighth-seeded Bears (1-9).

Hickory advanced to a 9 p.m. semifinal on Wednesday against St.

Stephens (9-3) and the Bears play Newton-Conover (6-4) in a consolation game on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

In the first-round game, the Red Tornadoes led 15-4 after the first quarter, but had difficulty putting the Bears away.

Through three quarters, Hickory hit only 14-of-46 shots (30 percent), but confounded Bunker Hill by forcing 23 turnovers.

Jordan McGinnis hit two shots to open the fourth quarter to bring Bunker Hill within 38-30. 

Hickory’s Zach Jarrett then scored nine straight points as part of a 10-2 run to help the Red Tornadoes begin to pull away.

The Red Tornadoes forced steals on six straight possessions, leading to nine points that blew the game open. Hickory hit 10-of-17 field goals in the final quarter and forced 11 turnovers.

Hickory used its height advantage to beat Bunker Hill 38-28 on the boards, with 11 offensive rebounds.

SOUTH CALDWELL 51, FRED T. FOARD 46

Jordyn Propst scored 17 points and Matt Hodge came off the bench to add 12 as South Caldwell scored the biggest surprise of the Catawba Valley Classic’s opening day by beating No. 2 seed Fred T. Foard.

The seventh-seeded Spartans (4-5) advance to the semifinals against No. 3 seed Alexander Central (7-3) on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. at Hickory High.

Foard (8-2) plays Maiden (3-5) in a consolation game on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at Hickory.

South Caldwell shot 47.6 percent from the field but used an efficient final quarter to pull away from Foard after a 34-all tie through three quarters.

The Spartans connected on five of seven floor attempts in the fourth and hit on just enough free throws (7-of-14) to outscore the Tigers 17-12 in the quarter and secure the win.

Brandon Kirk scored 11 points and Jordan Turner ended with 10 to lead Foard, which shot 40.8 percent from the field and lost its 31^st straight game to a Northwestern 3A-4A opponent.

ST. STEPHENS 54, NEWTON-CONOVER 44

Drew Starkey scored 13 points, Kerigan Farley and Dillion Spencer each added 10 as No. 5 seed St. Stephens advanced to the semifinals by beating No. 4 seed Newton-Conover.

St. Stephens plays Hickory in a semifinal on Wednesday at 9 p.m. at Hickory, while the Red Devils play Bunker Hill at 6 p.m. in a consolation game.

St. Stephens led 36-28 through three quarters but saw its lead shrink to 38-34 on a basket inside by Kevin Holloway with 5:16 left to play.

Newton-Conover pulled no closer, though, as the Indians hit on 12 of 17 free throws in the quarter to overcome a ragged shooting night.

St. Stephens shot just 36.2 percent from the field, but the Red Devils fared even worse, hitting 31 percent of their shots.

Tyoun Shuford’s 10 points led Newton-Conover.

Record Sports Correspondent Paul Fogleman contributed to this article.