Ball-hawking defense powered the North Moore boys’ basketball team to a 32-point shellacking of Chatham Central at home Friday night.

Down by three after the first quarter, the Mustangs (4-1, 2-1 YVC) ramped up the defensive pressure and outscored the Bears 25-7 to finish the half. North Moore kept the pedal to the metal in the second half, turning a 15-point halftime lead into a 67-35 win.

North Moore had a field day in transition, generating a lot of steals that led to easy baskets. All 11 Mustangs found the scoring column in what proved to be a true team effort.

“We turned the defense up,” said senior Tyler Wallace, who finished with six points. “Forcing those turnovers gave us some easy baskets on the lay-ups, and we just took it from there. When we play good defense, the rest of our game translates from there.”

Coach Grant Smith sat senior Corbin Brock — the team’s leading scorer — on the bench for the first quarter for receiving a technical foul in Tuesday’s game against East Montgomery.

The Bears held a 10-7 advantage after one, but the team kept the game tight despite Brock’s absence.

“The captains came together and said ‘we’ve got to hold this together until he gets on the floor’ and that’s what you saw,” Smith said.

Brock quickly made his presence known when he entered the game in the second quarter. He hit his very first shot — a three-pointer — to tie the game and ignite an offensive firestorm for his team.

He scored all 11 of his points in the period, leading a very balanced scoring attack.

Senior guards T.J. Kennedy and Xavier Scotton forced a lot of the Bears’ turnovers. Kennedy had six steals while Scotton had five.

Scotton finished with 11 points while Kennedy had six. Down low, Trevor Farquharson had eight and Sterling Barrett had four.

Offensively, the Mustangs were sharp, delivering crisp passes and cashing in when scoring opportunities were presented.

The North Moore bench also made big contributions in the game, especially freshman point guard Tristan Matthews, who posted his second 10-point performance in as many games.

“I’m just trying to do what the team needs me to do, and that’s shoot the ball and distribute it really well,” he said “We’re (the bench) just trying to put points on the board so the starters don’t have all the pressure.”

Wallace and Matthews both said that the team has placed an emphasis on finishing games after it came out flat in the second half against West Montgomery last week and lost.

Rounding out the scoring for North Moore were Justin Marley, Ben Albright and Rider Maness with three apiece and Jonathan Bym with two.

Will Purvis paced Chatham Central with 10.

North Moore hosts South Davidson Tuesday before back-to-back road games at Albemarle and at Grace Christian Thursday and Friday.

“Everyone was unselfish,” Smith said. “We have to have that. What you saw was 11 guys playing together as a basketball team and that’s hard to beat.”

Lady Mustangs Fall

Chatham Central handed the North Moore girls’ basketball team its first conference loss of the season Friday.

The Lady Mustangs didn’t shoot the ball well and had inopportune turnovers in the contest, which remained close until the fourth quarter. The Lady Bears went on a run in the final frame to open up a nine-point lead. North Moore was unable to claw back from the deficit and ultimately fell 45-38.

Head coach Sammy McNeill was disappointed with his team’s effort, saying it didn’t play well from the start.

“We missed ... at least nine shots within a foot and half (of the basket) uncontested, had three uncontested lay-ups and missed them,” he said. “Seniors missing those shots. Doing that, you can’t win. I don’t care who you play. Playing Chatham Central, you’re definitely not going to win. Playing a bad team you’re not going to win playing like that. It just seemed like we weren’t in sync tonight, didn’t have it going on.”

The Lady Bears led by five after the first quarter and by two at the half.

The Lady Bears held just a one-point advantage — at 31-30 — heading into the final period. But the Lady Mustangs suffered through a nearly five-minute scoring drought that allowed C.C. to go on a 8-0 run.

North Moore cut the lead to four following a Katelyn Sheffield trey and a Brower putback, but Chatham’s Elizabeth Little scored easily on consecutive possessions to kill the chance of a comeback.

Shakorya Brower led North Moore with 12 points. Tashonna Farmer had nine and Sheffield had eight. Mackayla Brown and Siena Courie each had 10 for the Lady Bears.

The loss drops North Moore to 3-2 (2-1 YVC) on the season. The team will look to regroup for YVC foe South Davidson, which visits on Tuesday.

“As far as this game’s concerned, it’s over tonight,” McNeill said. “That’s one thing we do is play the game and (when) the game’s over, you move onto the next one.

“South Davidson’s a completely different type of team and we’ll just get to ready to play South Davidson and when Chatham Central comes back around on our schedule, we’ll see if we can show up and play them a little better, because tonight we definitely made things easy for them.”

Contact John Krahnert III at sports@thepilot.com.