Courtesy of Greg Vlazny with the SWG coaching staff….
Tonight’s matchup featured city and conference foes Southwest Guilford playing hosts to the Bison of High Point Central. Thanks to the Sheetz Holiday Classic, this was the second go around for these two teams this year. Tonight’s matchup was the first time they would square off within the Conference season. The Holiday Classic Title game was convincing victory for the Cowboys winning for the 5th straight time against the Bison. But that was over a month ago, and tonight is a new night.
After a Cowboys miss, the Bison got on the board first with a basket giving them the lead. It was to be the only lead for the visiting squad for the entire game. A 3-pointer by Arjun Patel gave Southwest the lead for good on the night which was the start of a 7-0 run. A Bison free-throw stopped the bleeding and seemed to steady the tide. It was back and forth from there but the margin remained the same, ending the period at 14-7.
The second quarter opened with the same back and forth ending with a Central 3-pointer taking it to 16-13. The Cowboys then went on an 8-0 run taking it to 24-13 at the 3:30 mark. The Bison responded with a run of their own to make it 24-19. A quick 5-0 spurt by the Cowboys seemed to regain momentum, but a late basket before the buzzer cut the Cowboys lead to single digits taking the tally at the half at 29-21.
The second half opened with another Arjun Patel 3-pointer putting the lead into double figures again. The two teams traded baskets and missed opportunities throughout the frame with the Bison playing slightly better ball slimming the lead to 41-34 thanks in part to some late quarter turnovers by the Cowboys.
The first 3 minutes of the fourth quarter was some ugly, stagnant ball by the Cowboys, but played good enough defense to only allow the Bison 4 straight points, getting the game to it’s closest margin at 41-38 at the 5:00 mark. By the 4:00 mark the Cowboys had only mustered 2 points and it was 43-40. Following a timeout, the Cowboys turned on a switch somewhere and changed the tempo and blitzed the Bison, and took the lead right back out to 55-41 by the 2:55 mark. The Bison started having to foul, and the Cowboys made free-throws and held Central to only one more basket as they held on for the 60-43 victory.
The Bison were led by Michael Seals with 13. Southwest was led by DJ Chamblee with 11, 6 Rebs. Southwest will host East Forsyth tomorrow night for Senior Night.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final
HPC 07 14 13 09 43
Southwest 14 15 12 19 60
HPC (10-8) (1-5)
Michal Seals 13
Rahmon Barnes 2
Ahmad Langham 5
Trevor Gay 2
Trey Ward 4
Tim Gorham 9
Juwan Foggie 8
Southwest (16-5) (5-2)
Tyliek Brister 3
Andrew Bullock 5, 2 Rebs
Rick Mack 2 Stls, 2 Rebs
KJ Langley 8, 2 Stls, 2 Asts
Ben Ferguson 9, 2 Rebs, 2 Stls
Austen Zente 2, 2 Rebs, 2 Stls
DJ Chamblee 11
Orlando Smith 3
Kam Langley 3, 5 Rebs, 4 Asts
Arjun Patel 7, 4 Rebs
Kaymon Mitchell 7, 2 Rebs, 2 Asts