ERWIN — It was nothing short of a stampede.
Northwood bolted to a 19-0 advantage after one quarter and never looked back while placing nine players in the scoring column as the Chargers dominated all phases of the game en route to trampling an outmanned Triton team 57-19 on the Hawks’ home court Saturday afternoon.
Holding Triton to its fewest points since a 44-22 loss to Whiteville on December 22, 2009, Northwood lifted its record to 3-0 with its third convincing victory on the road, while the Hawks, who slipped to 1-2 for the season, suffered their most lopsided defeat since a 74-28 setback to Terry Sanford on January 5, 2016.
Jalen McAfee-Marion registered 14 points for the winners, while Aaron Ross and Deuce Powell finished with 12 and 10 points, respectively – all in the first half – as the Chargers shot a sizzling 58% (25-of-43) from the floor in addition to out-rebounding their host 22-10 besides committing 13 turnovers.
Keionta Burnett tallied five points to lead Triton, which connected on 29% (nine-of-31) of its field goal attempts while turning the ball over 25 times.
“I feel very fortunate to be part of a special group of kids who have shown a lot of senior leadership this season,” said Northwood coach Matt Brown. “They are so unselfish and love to share the ball while finding the open man for the best shot. Jumping out to a big lead was fine this afternoon, but I had some concern we weren’t communicating on defense in the first quarter, something we did improve upon as the game went on.”
Hawks’ coach T.J. Morrison related the outcome was almost what he expected from such a well-coached team.
“They have what you want out of your team, coachable talent,” remarked Morrison.
“Meanwhile, we were totally embarrassed the first quarter,” he said. “We were not poised on offense, we made bad passes and took too many quick shots. I told our guys at intermission they could either come out and fight hard the second half or continue to be embarrassed, and unfortunately it turned out to be more of the latter.”
While Triton missed all eight of its attempts from the field and turned the ball over nine times in the opening eight minutes of play, McAfee-Marion, Powell and Ross carried the load for the Chargers in the initial quarter.
Following a Ross fast break dunk off a nifty assist from Troy Arnold that put Northwood up 25-0 with 6:17 left in the first half, Dalen Thompson notched the Hawks’ initial points on a layup 16 seconds later, and after Triton trimmed the gap to 28-9 on Zydarious McDougald’s layup with 3:54 to go until the break, the Chargers closed out the period with a pair of McAfee-Marion free throws, Adam Omar’s fast break layup and a Ross tip-in at the buzzer to forge a 25-point lead at intermission.
Keeping the pedal to the metal, Northwood made 10 of its 12 field goal attempts in the third stanza while outscoring the Hawks 21-4 in the frame, eventually fashioning its biggest advantage at 55-13 following Sebastian Mehringer’s driving basket off the right wing with 17 seconds remaining in the quarter.