By Mike London
Salisbury Post
CHINA GROVE — You’ve gotta love the South Piedmont Conference.
There may have been a better second-round playoff game played somewhere in the state on Thursday, but, then again, maybe not.
CP Perry made a buzzer-beating jumper to give Carson a 64-62 victory over Northwest Cabarrus in the third meeting of the SPC teams. The sixth-place finisher in the conference, 23 seed Northwest had the seventh-seeded Cougars down by 11 in the third quarter and backed against the ropes, but Carson rallied to advance in the 5A state playoffs.
It’s the first playoff game ever won by a Carson crew led by junior guards CP Perry and Jacob Mills. As freshmen, they went to Asheboro and lost a thriller. As sophomores, they drew Ben Smith on the road in the first round. Enough said.
Now they’ve won one. Barely.
Carson was playing its 14th game minus Drew Neve. The Cougars (24-4) have gotten used to playing without Neve’s confident presence and frequent double-doubles, but that doesn’t mean life is getting easier. Perry (23 points) and Mills (26 points) were great on Thursday, but even with the home crowd, the Cougars still had their hands full.
“We were glad to get that first-round bye,” Carson head coach Brian Perry said. “But Northwest played a competitive playoff game on the road on Tuesday. They were really ready for this one and it took us a while to get our heads wrapped around playing at a playoff level of intensity. But we did play really well in the second half. We pulled it out.”
Northwest is young but was becoming a difficult opponent by the end of the regular season. Carson smashed Northwest in their first meeting, but the late-season rematch was a 62-58 dogfight, even with Perry and Mills combining for 46.
“I’ve been talking about how dangerous Northwest is for a month,” Coach Perry said. “They’ve got a stud big man (Shane Lucas-Walker), a really good guard who gets to the rim (Justin Gonder) and a crafty guard (Aiden Rochevot) who can shoot the 3. And they can put size and athletes around those three.”
Perry was energized from the start. He scored eight in the first quarter and carried the Cougars to a 13-11 lead.
Northwest face-guarded Perry in the second quarter, slowed him down some and seized the lead. Carson needed a burst of deadly shooting by Mills to fight back to a 33-28 deficit at halftime.
Northwest peaked when Rochevot scored for a 44-33 lead in the middle of the third quarter. Again, Mills shot the Cougars back into it. In the final moments of the half, Perry scored on a drive and rejected a 3-pointer on the other end, but Carson was still down five at 47-42.
Carson senior forward Maverick Walters scored to tie the game at 49-all. Senior Jaxson Martin and Mills followed with clutch 3-balls, and the Cougars led 55-49 with three minutes left. But Northwest wasn’t done.
Lucas-Walker made a series of plays in the paint for the Trojans, as they stormed back. Carson’s lead was down to a fragile single point when Martin walked to the foul line with 32 seconds left. He made one of two, and the Cougars led 61-59.
Lucas-Walker answered with a strong, three-point play, banking in the free throw for a 62-61 Northwest lead.
Perry drew a foul on a drive, but only made one of two free throws, and it was 62-all with five seconds left.
A Northwest turnover gave the Cougars a chance to win at the end of regulation, and they ran a side out of bounds play for Perry. His man got picked off, and he was able to catch the ball and make several dribbles to his right. He went up for the shot from the right elbow, releasing it just before the horn sounded.
The shot swished, there was pandemonium, and the Cougars and their fans celebrated.
“Big-time shot by CP,” Coach Perry said. “Jacob and CP had big offensive nights.”
Mills scored 26, with 18 after halftime. Perry had 23 points, six rebounds and five assists. Corbin Krider had three assists. Will Hall had six rebounds.
It will get even tougher for the Cougars on Saturday. They’ll go to Robinson, the team that shared the SPC regular-season championship with Carson and whacked the Cougars by 16 in the tournament final. Robinson obliterated Monroe in the second half on Thursday after a competitive first half.
Gonder scored 20, while Lucas-Walker had 10 of his 13 in the fourth quarter.
NWC closes the books at 7-20, but with a lot of respect.
NW Cabarrus 11 22 14 15 — 62
Carson 13 15 14 22 — 64
NWC — Gonder 20, Lucas-Walker 13, Rochevot 11, Rucker 6, Long 5, Woolfolk 5, Soles 2.
CARSON — Mills 26, Perry 23, Martin 6, Walters 4, Covington 3, Krider 2.
