DURHAM — The green and gold train that is the Northwood boys basketball team continued to chug along with a pair of early week wins.
Actually that train is more like a locomotive with a full head of steam, and Northern Durham and Western Harnett both can attest to that.
On Tuesday evening in Durham, Northwood opened 3A Big Eight Conference play with a 77-51 thrashing of Nothern Durham (0-6).
Aaron Ross sparked the victory with 22 points on 9-of--11 shooting from the field as the Chargers shot 29-of-55 (55%) as a team.
The high-powered Northwood offensive attack also received 19 points from Deuce Powell and 17 more from Jalen Mcafee-Marion. Powell connected on 3-for-5 shots from behind the arc as the Chargers hit five treys on the night with Tommy Ocariza and Colby Burleson adding one apiece.
Ross completed a stellar contest with six rebounds, four offensive, and four assists while Alex Snively chipped in three boards, five assists, and five steals to go with four points and Troy Arnold had five rebounds, three assists and three steals. Jack Thompson contributed two boards, three assists and two steals while Mcafee-Marion added two rebounds, an assist, two steals, two blocks and three deflections.
On Friday night in Pittsboro, Northwood (7-0) hammered Western Harnett (1-8) in non-conference action 84-44.
The balanced Chargers saw 10 players score led by 14 points from Mcafee-Marion and 11 apiece from Ross and Powell. Adam Omar chipped in 10 points, Snively eight points, Justin Brower added seven, Ocariza six, and Burleson and Sebastian Mehringer five each.
Northwood lit it up from behind the arc as the locals sank 10-of-21 three-point attempts with Powell, Ocariza and Adam Omar a pair of treys each while Burleson, Snively, Mehringer and Brower added one apiece.
Snively chipped in four rebounds, three assists, a deflection and a steal in the win for the Chargers while Thompson had three boards, four assists, four steals a deflection and drew a charge. Ross added three rebounds, two assists, three steals and two deflections while Mehringer chipped in two assists, two steals and two deflections in the win.