PILOT MOUNTAIN — East Surry’s strongest start of the season, and maybe the past few seasons, set the bar for the Cardinals’ 64-49 win over North Wilkes.
The Cardinals built and maintained a double-digit lead that lasted all four quarters of Friday’s game. East Surry picks up the “W” to improve to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the Foothills 2A Conference.
East Surry’s Jordan Davis put a career-best performance by scoring 32 points. Even more impressive than Davis’ final stat line was the streak of 3-pointers that helped him achieve it.
Davis didn’t get discouraged when he missed his first 3-point attempt in Friday’s game against the visiting Vikings. In fact, the junior guard got back on his horse and drained a 3-pointer, off an assist from Daniel Creech, to get the Cardinals on the board with three points. Davis built a little momentum when he took a pass from Folger Boaz and nailed another triple for what ended up being the only lead change in Friday’s game.
East Surry led 7-5 with 4:01 left to play in the first quarter, but the lead wouldn’t stay in single digits for long. Davis knocked down seven consecutive 3-pointers in just the first quarter. His 23 first-quarter points helped East Surry take a 28-8 advantage after eight minutes of play.
MaxPreps only has basketball statistics for East Surry going back to 2017. From the beginning of the 2017-18 season to just before Friday’s game, only two East Surry players had scored seven 3-pointers in single game: the first was Jefferson Boaz, who went 7-of-10 from deep on Feb. 1, 2019; the next was Dillon Mosley, who made 7-of-9 shots from downtown 25 days later.
The Cardinals came back down to reality when North Wilkes started the second quarter with an 16-2 run. East went 4:56 before Folger Boaz scored on a fast break, and even that was the Cards’ only field goal until there were less than 90 seconds remaining in the half. The Vikings cut the lead to 10 points before a Luke Brown free throw and transition layup from Davis made the halftime score 35-22.
East Surry returned to superstar form in the second half. Creech knocked down his first 3-pointer of the game to spark a 9-2 run. North Wilkes came out of a timeout and hit back-to-back triples, but East responded with another big run. This time, the Cards scored nine-straight points to take their largest lead of the night at 53-30.
After scoring his final field goal of the game, Davis passed the baton to Joseph Grezmak. Grezmak grabbed big offensive rebounds and scored six of his 10 points in the final quarter of play. Bradley Davis added a free throw in the fourth to round out the Cardinals’ 64 points.
East Surry will put its undefeated record on the line on Dec. 14 when the Cardinals travel to North Surry (4-0).
Scoring
North Wilkes – 8, 14, 12, 15 = 49
East Surry – 28, 7, 20, 9 = 64
NW: Chris Kimmel 9, Reese Cleary 8, Brandon Holloway 7, Drew Winkler 7, Zach Wyatt 7, Trevaun Hague 6, Noah Royall 3, Solomon Panneton 2
ES: Jordan Davis 32, Joseph Grezmak 10, Daniel Creech 8, Folger Boaz 7, Luke Brown 7, Bradley Davis 1
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com