PITTSBORO— As Jordan-Matthews found out in Saturday night’s non-conference clash with county rival Northwood, you can only corral thoroughbreds for so long.
After trailing J-M for most of the first half, the unbeaten Chargers broke free of their reins to tally 33 points during an impressive third-quarter outburst on the way to dismantling the Jets 82-63 in a marathon foul-plagued contest in Lewis Norwood Gymnasium.
Sweeping its annual series with Jordan-Matthews for the fourth year in a row, Northwood improved to 8-0 for the season, while J-M fell to 4-4 overall.
Aaron Ross poured in a game-high 25 points to lead four Chargers in double figures. Jalen McAfee-Marion totaled 16 points, Deuce Powell pitched in 14 and Alex Snively came off the bench to add 13 as the winners shot 55% (28-of-51) from the floor and outrebounded their visitors from Siler City 26-19 while turning the ball over 14 times.
Lanice Hedgepeth came off the bench to notch 23 points for the Jets, while Camden Fuquay and Jayden Davis contributed 10 apiece. J-M connected on 49% (18-of-37) of its field goal attempts but suffered 22 turnovers.
A total of 52 fouls were called in the game, with Jordan-Matthews going to the free throw line 20 times and converting 25-of-37 attempts, while Northwood made 21-of-28 charity tosses.
“We know we’re going to get everybody’s best against us, and Jordan-Matthews came ready to play tonight, executed a great game plan and outplayed us the first half,” said Northwood coach Matt Brown.
“As a result of all the foul calls we ended the first half with only one starter on the floor, but our bench responded well and took up the slack. We made adjustments to our press break at halftime and went to a 2-3 zone that seemed to bother J-M and led to some easy baskets for us.”
Jets’ coach Rodney Wiley remarked both teams had trouble establishing momentum due to all the stoppage on the court resulting from fouls.
“I thought we were aggressive the first half, broke Northwood’s press and attacked the rim,” noted Wiley. “But in the second half they took it to us, getting in the passing lanes and disrupting us while scoring a lot of transition buckets. Their zone caused us to go stagnant on offense and we bogged down while at the same time they began hitting shots from behind the arc to open the game up.”
The Chargers held a couple of brief leads in the first two minutes of play before J-M took control and built as much as a four-point advantage on two occasions prior to Powell’s conventional three-point play with three seconds to go in the initial period that pulled Northwood within 16-15 after one quarter.
After a six-point Jordan-Matthews run fueled by back-to-back Hedgepeth hoops at the start of the second stanza thrust the Jets into a seven-point lead with 6:17 left until intermission, the Chargers rallied to seize a 30-29 advantage at the break when Powell canned a twisting jumper in the lane in the final second of the half.
With Ross responsible for eight points over the first three minutes of the third period, Northwood opened up a 40-33 lead which grew to 50-37 less than two minutes later following consecutive McAfee-Marion three-pointers from the left wing.
Before the quarter was over Ross would score eight points over the last 36.8 seconds to help the Chargers expand their advantage to 63-42 heading into the final frame.
Northwood then forged its biggest lead of the evening at 80-51 on Aidan McLandsborough’s free throw with 3:35 left in the game and J-M never got its deficit under 19 the rest of the way.