West Stanly men return from COVID protocol, post win, loss

Published 3:43 pm Monday, January 10, 2022

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After missing two weeks due to COVID protocols, the West Stanly men’s basketball team played Rocky River Conference games on back-to-back nights last week.

West hosted Central Academy at home Thursday and traveled to Parkwood Friday.

West Stanly 60, Central Academy 50

West could not practice before Thursday’s game and had not played a game since losing at Sun Valley Dec. 21.

The Colts broke out to an early lead and earned a 10-point win at home over the Cougars, 60-50.

Matthew Parker led West Stanly (6-5, 1-0 RRC) with 27 points, knocking down seven 3-pointers, while Jacob Lisk added 12 points for the Colts.

Jake Shearin led Central Academy (1-10, 0-1) with 19 points.

“At times, we certainly played like a team who has not played or practiced in three weeks,” West head coach John Thompson said. “We had a chance to put them away, but just got sloppy a few possessions in a row.”

He added Parker “was fantastic shooting the ball and also did a nice job managing the game overall.”

Parkwood 50, West Stanly 49

The lead changed hands eight times in the final four minutes of the game, but two late free throws gave the Wolfpack a one-point home win over the Colts.

Parker again led West (6-6, 1-1) with 19 points, 15 coming in a quarter in which the Colts scored 20 points. Charlie Carpenter added nine points.

Braylen Evans led Parkwood (6-10, 101) with 12 points.

Kamran Adams sunk the second of two free-throws with 11 seconds left to give Parkwood the win.

West had a chance to retake the lead down one with the ball in the front court with 5.5 seconds left but it was unable to get a shot off on the sideline play as the buzzer expired.

“(West) really struggled on offense in the first half,” Thompson said. “We missed a couple easy baskets and had trouble against their length. We moved the ball much better in the second half.”

Thompson added sophomore Jaxson Hinton gave the team a spark in the second half. He said Parker “gave us the scoring we needed in the fourth.”

The West coach added he liked the team’s fight in the second half, saying “if we can give that effort from the start and fix some of the little details, we can definitely make some noise in this conference.”

West will host North Stanly in a non-conference match Jan. 17.

About Charles Curcio

Charles Curcio has served as the sports editor of the Stanly News & Press for more than 16 years and has written numerous news and feature storeis as well. He was awarded the NCHSAA Tim Stevens Media Representative of the Year and named CNHI Sports Editor of the Year in 2014. He has also won an award from Boone Newspapers, and has won four North Carolina Press Association awards.

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