ASHEBORO — Southwestern Randolph coach Matt Kiser might want to think of his team’s opening-round triumph over Jordan-Matthews in the 29th annual The Courier-Tribune Christmas Invitational Tournament as a belated Christmas gift.
The Cougars, who never trailed, clawed their way to a 16-4 lead after one quarter before playing J-M even over the final three stanzas, making their first-period advantage the difference in posting a 57-45 victory Friday night at Asheboro High School.
Winning for just the 10th time in 29 first-round appearances, Southwestern Randolph broke a two-game losing streak and improved to 6-5 for the season while defeating the Jets for the eighth time in 14 tourney meetings, whereas Jordan-Matthews lost its fourth consecutive outing in dropping to 4-6 overall.
Ethan Smith poured in a game-high 20 points and Luke Dalke finished with 16 for the Cougars, who connected on 20-of-35 (57 percent) of their field goals attempts and commanded a 34-14 rebounding advantage to help offset turning the ball over 21 times.
Lanice Hedgepeth notched 18 points and Camden Fuquay contributed 15 for J-M, which shot 18-of-49 (37 percent) from the floor while committing 13 turnovers.
“Doing a good job executing on offense let us make some nice runs tonight,” said Kiser. “We had a couple of guys having a hot hand and got the ball to them for scoring opportunities. We not only shared the ball well, but our guards did a good job looking down the floor and finding open teammates behind the defense for some easy transition baskets.
“After going up by as many as 17 points midway through the third quarter, we had some lapses on offense and got a little sloppy with the ball but managed to hold on down the stretch by hitting free throws.”
Jets’ coach Rodney Wiley said that getting off to a slow start resulted in his team having to battle from behind the entire night.
“In the first quarter we didn’t look to attack the zone in the middle and instead were content to fire up shots from the outside, and that’s not what we wanted,” said Wiley. “After we closed our deficit to 10 at intermission, Southwestern Randolph got on a hot streak at the start of the third period and put us back on our heels a second time. But then we finally developed some momentum when Lanice began attacking in the paint and we got some shots to fall while our press began creating turnovers.
“Rebounding was a big factor that hurt us tonight. Southwestern Randolph used its height advantage to control the glass, and we need to do a better job boxing out against taller opponents.”
Following Fuquay’s put-back in the lane a minute-and-a-half into the contest that forged the evening’s only tie at 2-apiece, Smith’s layup ignited a 14-2 quarter-ending run by the Cougars, including the last eight points of the stanza, that gave the winners a 16-4 lead at the end of the initial period.
After Jordan-Matthews narrowed the margin to 24-16 on Hedgepeth’s jumper in the lane with 1:21 to go until halftime, Dalke canned a pair of foul shots to provide Southwestern Randolph with a double-digit advantage at the break.
With Smith draining a trio of three pointers in the first two-and-a-half minutes of the third frame, the Cougars opened up their biggest lead at 35-18 prior to J-M rallying behind back-to-back three-point plays from Fuquay to trim the gap to 43-33 entering the final quarter.
Hedgepeth’s layup with 2:59 remaining to play drew the Jets within 49-42, but following Dalke’s layup a minute later Southwestern Randolph proceeded to put the game away at the charity stripe, sinking six-of-nine attempts over the last 1:44 while Jordan-Matthews could never reduce the spread to less than nine the rest of the way.