PITTSBORO — Alex Snively fired in a trio of three-pointers while tallying 11 of his game-high 13 points in the first half as once-beaten Northwood surged to a 14-point advantage at intermission and expanded its lead to as much as 30 points early in the fourth quarter before settling for a 66-52 Big Eight 3A Conference victory over Chapel Hill Tuesday evening in Lewis Norwood Gymnasium.
The Chargers improved to 4-0 in the league standings and 13-1 for the year, while the Tigers fell to 2-1 in the conference and 7-6 overall.
Aaron Ross chipped in 11 points and Jalen McAfee-Marion added 10 for the winners, who shot 47 percent (24-of-51) from the floor while turning the ball over 16 times.
Chapel Hill’s Isaac Sinclair collected all of his team-high 11 points in the second half and Jake Chisholm contributed 10 for the Tigers, who connected on 46 percent (21-of-46) of their field goal attempts and held a slight 25-23 edge on the boards while committing 21 turnovers.
“Our defense was very good putting pressure on the ball at the outset, causing a lot of early turnovers that allowed us to get out to a nice lead, while Alex Snively had one of his best all-around games of the year,” said Northwood coach Matt Brown.
“Only giving up a pair of three-pointers over the first three quarters helped our game plan,” said Brown, “as we did a good job contesting Chapel Hill’s outside shooters before they managed to hit five treys down the stretch against our reserves. Besides the relentless effort we put forth on defense, what I like about our team is the unselfish way we share the ball on offense, always looking for the open man and only taking good shots.”
Tigers’ coach Rodney Carter explained not handling Northwood’s press well at the start resulted in his team facing an uphill battle the rest of the night.
“Being careless with the ball got us into an early hole, and we didn’t help matters by missing so many open shots,” related Carter. “Our lack of scoring in the third quarter came down to not running our offense, but we brought in guys off the bench who played more aggressive the last period and defended better than some starters.”
Chapel Hill took its only lead of the night at 5-4 on Chisholm’s pull-up jumper off the right baseline with 4:28 to go in the initial stanza before a Ross jumper off the left baseline eight seconds later put the Chargers ahead to stay and sparked an 11-4 quarter-ending run capped by Snively’s trey from the right wing with 57.5 seconds remaining in the period.
After the Tigers closed to within 17-13 on Jack Grubbs’ drive off the left baseline midway through the second frame, back-to-back Snively three-pointers from the right side triggered a 15-5 Northwood burst to finish out the quarter as the Chargers carried a 32-18 lead into the break.
With McAfee-Marion, Ross and Deuce Powell combining for 13 points in the third stanza, Northwood outscored the visitors from Orange County 18-4 in the frame to increase its advantage to 50-22 entering the fourth period.
The Chargers matched their biggest lead of the evening at 59-29 following a Ross conventional three-point play with 5:17 left in the contest prior to Brown pulling his starters from the court.
Chapel Hill then found its offensive groove against the Charger reserves, and behind a combined scoring output of 16 points from Sinclair, Chisholm and Caleb Kelly, the Tigers closed out the game with a 23-7 run to make the final score more respectable.