Mike Ellis ready to tell us what happened in that wild Ragsdale-SWG game last night, where Bryan Rouse hit for 37 points:Special from the Jamestown News

Courtesy of Mike Ellis sports writer/sports editor at the Jamestown News, one of our area’s top weekly publications and edited by David ‘Ogi’ Overman and published by Womack Newspapers….

Hard to figure this one. After coming off a disappointing performance at
the Pizza Hut Tournament, the Tigers went to the “Ranch” and completely
outplayed the prohibitive pre-season favorites for the Piedmont Triad
Conference title. Coach Shoemaker had his guys prepared and they played
well, trailing only once in the game at 3 – 2. They were up by 6 at the end
of the first quarter, 16 – 10 and were up by 19 during the third quarter.

The Cowboys made a couple of runs, cutting the lead to 7 in the fourth
quarter at 68 – 61, but the Tigers always had an answer. They handled the
press well and were able to get to the basket and convert or draw fouls.

Brian Rouse was outstanding, scoring 37 points. Rouse was able to get to
the hoop and hit short range jumpers as he had 11 two pointers and only one
trey. He also hit 12 of 15 from the charity stripe. Ragsdale hit almost
71% from the line, going 24 for 34 as Southwest was forced to foul late and
sent the Tigers to the foul line for 20 free throws in the fourth quarter.

Southwest just did not seem to be in synch all night, having difficulty
running their offense against the Ragsdale D and having no answer for the
Tigers on the defensive end. The Southwest press forced a few turnovers,
but gave up way too many easy baskets at the other end.

In addition to Rouse’s scoring, Ragsdale got an outstanding effort from
their only senior, Karson Redfern, who did a good job on the boards and was
a big contributor in the middle on breaking the full court press. Redfern
also scored 10 points. Daniel Kanakanui and James Stepp were also in double
figures with 11 points each. Joseph Bryant scored seven consecutive points
for Ragsdale at the start of the fourth quarter as part of his 9 total
points.

Ragsdale had their “game of the season” and will be back on court Friday
night at home against Northwest Guilford. There was a lot of criticism of
the team after the Pizza Hut and they responded by coming out and playing
well, executing on both ends of the court and coming away with a huge win to
hopefully show the team they have the talent and coaching to play well and
compete in Conference play. It could be a “turning point” for the Tigers,
but Friday’s game will answer a lot of questions as they lost to the Vikings
on the final day of the PHI by a 20 point margin. Coach Shoemaker will have
the Tigers ready to play and hopefully the execution and effort will be a
carbon copy of last night’s performance.