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Western Alamance's Xander Ward, left, makes his move to the basket as Eastern Alamance's Lebron Reels defends.
Times-News
David Kehrli / Times-News, Times-News
ELON — A rivalry game turned out to be the perfect time for Xander Ward to make his season debut for the Western Alamance boys’ basketball team.
Playing for the first time this season, Ward posted 16 points to led the Warriors to a 59-52 victory against visiting Eastern Alamance in a Mid-State 3-A Conference game on Friday night.
With the return of Ward, as well as Eric Wagoner, the Warriors (2-4 overall, 2-4 Mid-State 3-A) stopped a three-game skid and produced a more complete version of themselves.
“We played better,” Western Alamance coach Michael Graves said. “We attacked better. We got two guys back who have been out. So, we didn’t have them the first few games. We got some young guys playing up. Things are coming together. We was out a little while with COVID. I was away from the team for 28 days. That’s a long time for a young team. I’m pleased with the win. We’ve been coming close and when we add Xander, he’s a big guard and it’s a tough matchup for most people.”
Ward’s strong performance started out of the gate, when he converted two and-one plays in the opening quarter.
“(Ward) gives us athleticism," Graves said. "He gives us length. He gives us experience. He gives us a guy, who if smaller guys are being pressured, he can bring the ball up and relieve pressure. He has all the intangibles and he’s deceptively quick. He gives us stability and confidence.”
The Eagles (3-3, 3-3), who trailed 41-34 after three quarters, were propelled by Darius Kane, who scored 13 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter.
“He has the ability to do that,” Eastern Alamance first-year coach Brad Costa said. “I think Western knew that too. They were so focused on bracketing him and having a lot of help so he couldn’t get a lot of openings in the first, second and even third quarters. I think he played great in the fourth. Just a little too big of a hole for us to climb out of.”
Western Alamance used Logan Adams to defend Kane for most of the night, but foul trouble sent Adams to the bench in the fourth quarter.
"We had Logan on him and we thought that was a pretty good matchup," Graves said. "Athlete vs. athlete. We got a couple reach-in fouls and had to sit him for a little while. We had to put a smaller guard on him and that kind of hurt us a little bit."
Eastern Alamance took a brief lead in the fourth quarter before struggling in the final three minutes to knock down shots.
“That’s the story of our season right now,” Costa said. “I feel like we’ve had great looks consistently. I think we have guys who are good shooters. We’re getting the looks and we’re not knocking them down, and hopefully we can get that turned around.”
King Dorsey provided 12 points while Adams and Jamison Graves finished with 11 points apiece for the Warriors, who held on, in part by knocking down free throws (6 of 8) in the final minute.
“He was just saying we got to close out on all the shooters, box out and get rebounds,” Dorsey said about the message in the huddle.
With less 30 seconds remaining and Western Alamance in possession of the ball and up by four, the Warriors called timeout to set up an in-bounds play they hadn’t practice before. The play involved the in-bounding player passing the ball to a teammate who was outside the in-bounds area, and that player passing in back in a give-in-go type play.
“Our kids are like ‘Can you do that?,’ ” Graves said. “I’m like, ‘Hey, listen. We got one timeout.’ Against Northeast, I held a timeout when we was up one with 50 seconds left and I felt like that cost us, kind of hurt us. I thought, let’s pass here, step in and just get it back. Get it to a guy we want with the ball. That was improv. I was glad we were able to understand it on the board.”
Camden Gerlach posted 16 points for Eastern Alamance.
“Camden is a guy who is going to give us everything he’s got at every moment,” Costa said. “I love that about him. He works hard. He’s ferocious in side. He wants every rebound.”
• The girls' basketball game originally scheduled for Friday night was postponed due to the Western Alamance team being in coronavirus quarantine, Warriors athletics director Mike Pennington said.
That game is scheduled to be made up at 6 p.m. on Feb. 10 at Western Alamance.
