Rosewood rally falls short against James Kenan

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on February 19, 2016 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

SALEMBURG -- This one slipped away.

Rosewood erased a second-half, double-digit deficit in scrappy and determined fashion, but dropped a 64-60 decision to James Kenan in semifinal-round play of the 2016 Carolina 1-A Conference tournament Thursday evening.

Kenan, the No. 2 seed, opposes regular-season champion Neuse Charter in tonight's championship tilt. Tip-off is 7:30 p.m. at Lakewood HS.

The Eagles trailed 28-26 at halftime.

But the single-possession affair quickly turned into the Tigers' favor. Rosewood misfired on nine consecutive possessions during one stretch of the third quarter.

Kenan owned a 15-point lead early in the fourth quarter.

"That's kind of been the tendency this season, it seems like," said RHS head coach Daniel Mitchell, whose team connected on just one third-quarter field goal.

"Coming out of the locker room in the third quarter, we've had a hard time scoring the basketball. We had a hard time tonight and dug ourselves a hole."

However, Rosewood (12-13 overall) scrambled, lengthened the game and seized the lead. A once-stagnant offense became more fluid -- punctuated by solid ball movement and shots that finally started to fall.

Noah Grantham buried a couple of 3-pointers. Tucker Chapin, who battled a stomach bug, attacked the basket and got to the free throw line. He shot six of the seven at the stripe and tallied 13 of his team-leading 19 points in the final period.

Zack Barnes capped a 15-5 run with a short jumper that put Rosewood ahead, 55-54, past the midway point. Barnes finished with 16 points and eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for his career.

"When you make shots, then you want to play defense," said Mitchell, whose team survived a questionable fourth-quarter technical four that Kenan managed to squander. The Tigers hit just one of four free throws and turned the ball over on the inbounds possession.

"We had energy, effort, turned them over and were able to get back into the game."

But the Eagles had trouble stopping the Tigers' baseline drives and positioning for offensive putbacks. DeAngelo McKinney's offensive rebound and Jalen Miller's reverse layup gave the Tigers (17-6) enough of a working margin in the final 40-plus seconds.

"That was big," Mitchell said of McKinney's offensive board. "They did a good job of getting by us on the dribble and finding their big kids inside. I wished it would have turned out a little better for us at the end."

Grantham provided nine points. Ethan Chapin and Marquail Al-montaser each supplied seven points. Darryl McCaster paced the Tigers' offense with a game-high 24 points.