PITTSBORO — After East Chapel Hill narrowed a 14-point third-quarter deficit to two at the start of the final period, Northwood reeled off nine unanswered points to regain control and held the Wildcats in check the rest of the way to collect a 63-57 triumph in opening-round play of the NCHSAA 2020 Men’s 3A East basketball state playoffs last Tuesday in Lewis Norwood Gymnasium.
Defeating their Big Eight 3A Conference rivals for the third time this season, the third-seed Chargers extended their current win streak to seven games and climbed to 24-2 overall while preparing to host 19th-seed Terry Sanford (18-6) Thursday night in a second-round clash, whereas 30th-seed East Chapel Hill concluded the year with a record of 11-15.
Jalen McAfee-Marion led four Northwood starters in double figures with 17 points, Alex Snively contributed 15, including a trio of treys, Aaron Ross notched 13 and Deuce Powell added 12 as the Chargers shot 40 percent (21-of-52) from the field while turning the ball over 11 times.
Will Tyndall registered 20 points and Miles Merriweather added 11 for the Wildcats, who connected on 48 percent (24-of-50) of their attempts from the floor and held a slight 28-27 margin in rebounds while committing 15 turnovers.
“East Chapel Hill played us tough in both our earlier games with them so our plan tonight was to pressure them early and get stops while creating turnovers,” said Northwood coach Matt Brown. “I thought Jalen had an outstanding game scoring, rebounding at both ends of the court and defending, while he and Aaron hit some key free throws late, combining to go 11-of-12 at the line down the stretch.”
Wildcats’ coach Ray Hartsfield said he was proud of how his squad competed in the second half after finding itself trailing by 11 at intermission.
“After Northwood had a few runs in the first half we found some energy in the third quarter to speed things up while taking good shots and getting stops on defense to cut the difference to two and give ourselves a chance to pull out a victory,” Hartsfield said. “But then we didn’t get the stops we needed in the fourth quarter, while Northwood did a good job knocking down free throws to extend its lead far enough out that we couldn’t catch up.”
Following the first five minutes of play the teams were deadlocked at 7-all before the Chargers seized the advantage for good on a Ross trey from the left corner with 2:20 to go in the initial period.
After a Merriweather foul shot cut the lead to two with 1:56 left in the quarter, McAfee-Marion’s midcourt steal and windmill dunk gave Northwood a 12-8 advantage at the end of the opening stanza.
Back-to-back Snively three-pointers two minutes into the second period spearheaded a 13-5 Chargers’ run to boost their lead to 25-13 with 3:54 remaining in the first half prior to East Chapel Hill closing the gap to 28-21 on Charles Stanley’s layup with 1:32 left until intermission.
But Northwood then answered with a 6-2 quarter-ending spurt, climaxed by Jack Thompson’s jumper from the right wing at the horn, to forge a 34-23 advantage at the break.
After McAfee-Marion’s put-back in the lane increased the Chargers’ lead to 41-27 with 5:23 to go in the third frame, the Wildcats narrowed the difference to 44-39 on James Riley’s conventional three-point play with exactly two minutes remaining in the period before Justin Brower’s drive off the left baseline at the horn sent Northwood into the final eight minutes up by seven.
Following Tyndall’s three-pointer from the left wing and Merriweather’s layup to start the fourth stanza drew East Chapel Hill within 46-44 with 5:50 to go in the contest, Ross and Powell combined for seven consecutive points during the Chargers’ 9-0 burst as the winners’ advantage grew to 55-44 with 2:08 remaining.
“After opening up a double-digit lead at halftime we didn’t finish plays in the third quarter, didn’t take good shots and gave East Chapel Hill too many second-chance opportunities that aided in their comeback,” Brown said, “but this senior-heavy group knows what it take to win and didn’t panic when the score got close in the fourth period.”
After a pair of McAfee-Marion charity tosses stretched Northwood’s lead to 63-51 with 37.2 seconds left, Tyndall tallied all of the Wildcats’ points during a 6-0 game-ending run on two free throws, a put-back in the paint and one off the right baseline to account for the final spread.