Spring Creek captures pivotal league victory

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on February 8, 2014 11:31 PM

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astevens@newsargus.com

SEVEN SPRINGS -- Rosewood head coach Daniel Mitchell didn't view his team's fourth-quarter comeback as a silver lining in the midst of a conference loss Friday evening.

Mitchell saw it a source of frustration.

Spring Creek dominated the Eagles for three quarters and built a 19-point lead before hanging on for a 62-55 victory in Carolina 1-A Conference play. Brandon Gonzalez led the Gators with a game-high 23 points. Gary Williams finished with 12 points.

Dennis Mitchell scored 17 points for Rosewood and grabbed seven rebounds. Zack Barnes added 15 points and Jon Hair had 13 points.

The Gators led 26-18 at halftime and used a key 17-6 run to open the third quarter that pushed the margin to 43-24. For the majority of the night, Spring Creek was the more physical team, hustled after loose balls and controlled the backboards.

"We got out toughed for a large portion of the game," coach Mitchell said. "We got bullied around a little bit and didn't match Spring Creek's intensity and effort. We dug ourselves a hole. We've got to be able to play with the effort (we showed in the fourth quarter) to start the game."

Williams knocked down three 3-pointers in the third quarter and was part of a Gators' bench that contributed 26 points.

"I thought our kids played with a ton of confidence," Spring Creek head coach Taylor Jones said. "We played hard. We made the extra pass to the guy that was open and we took good shots."

The Gators led 52-33 early in the final quarter before offensive patience began to pay off for the Eagles. Rosewood methodically executed its offense and got stops on the defensive end.

Hair's free throws capped a 19-5 run that pulled the Eagles to within 55-52 with 52 seconds left.

"It was frustrating to see us play that way during that stretch in the fourth quarter," coach Mitchell said. "We've got to do it earlier. We've got to do it for the entire game and not just a five-, six- or seven-minute stretch."

Spring Creek calmly sank 7 of 8 free throws in the final 49 seconds to seal the win.

"We went to the free throw line and hit some big free throws," Jones said. "That's the great thing about this team. We're so good at the guard position that we've got several guys that can make free throws."

Rosewood visits James Kenan on Monday, while the Gators travel to James Kenan on Tuesday.