— orm Mounties sweep Burns in SWFH makeup game Kings Mountain swept Burns in a Southwestern Foothills 3A basketball doubleheader Wednesday night at Donald L. Parker Gymnasium. The games had been postponed because of the early-January snow. The Lady Mountaineers won 61-50 to break a three-game los- ing streak and improve their record to 2-3 in the SWFH and 8-9 overall. The Kings Mountain men fell behind early but regrouped to post a 61-53 victory that kept them tied for first place in the SWEH with Hickory. Shonda Cole scored 25 points, Crystal Miller 17 and Danielle Gill 13 for the KM ladies. Tia Sanders scored 13 points and Markita Lee had 12 for Burns. Kings Mountain jumped out to a 20-11 first quarter lead and led 33-17 at halftime. Burns closed the gap by outscoring the Lady Mountaineers 18-12 in the third quarter but KM was still able to maintain a double-digit lead most of the fourth quarter. “We finally put four strong quarters together and picked up a much-needed win,” said KM Coach Kevin Moss. “We had a well balanced scoring attack all night long. Crystal Miller was hitting shots from the outside and Shonda Cole and Danielle Gill were scoring on the inside. See Burns, 7A Largest Selection of Jewelry in Area! ANNIVERSARY 1/10: Carat... 0.0 $110.00 1 Carativ..iiieions $629.95 1/4 Carat ............... $299.00 172 Carat........a....o $399.00 172 Carat... $599.00 1/4 Carat. ................ $199.00 Carat. <0... $1995.00 7 TLR MARQUIS DIAMOND 1/10.Carat ....... from $229.95 1/4. 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Mountaineers tame Ti take over first place in \SE SALE By GARY STEWART Editor of The Herald Kings Mountain High men’s basketball coach Danny McDowell said he could sense during Thursday's practice that something special was going to happen at Donald L. Parker Gymnasium Friday night when the Mountaineers hosted top ten-ranked Fred T. Foard. “They were so psyched out it was amazing,” McDowell said. “It was unreal that those guys could be that focused.” Their focus was a Tiger team that had taken advantage of KM fouls in an earlier meeting and eked out an eight-point victory in Newton. At that time, Foard was unbeaten and ranked fifth in the State. Coming into Friday’s game, the Tigers had dropped a couple upsets, but Kings Mountain's 77-57 victory could not be regarded as an upset. “Our guys played their hearts out,” McDowell said. “When they came into the locker room . before the game you could see - the gleam in their eyes - from the freshmen all the way to the seniors. It carried out on the ' court, for all four quarters of the game.” Before a packed house, the DOMESTICS GASTONIA’S 71llhov=" LARGEST AND NEWEST January 31, 2002 Section A, Page 8 KMHS wrestlers beat Burns for playoff spot By SHARON PUTNAM Special to The Herald The Burns Bulldogs came into Kings Mountain’s Donald L. Parker Gymnasium Tuesday night with what they believed to be their best shot in school history to make the dual team state playoffs. Burns and Kings Mountain had each lost only one Southwestern Foothills Conference match this season, each losing to the number 1- ranked 3A team in the State, St. Stephens. With only two playoff spots available to the SWFH, both teams came out with fire in their eyes. The Mountaineers, coming off an impressive 42-30 victory over 14th ranked Fred T. Foard, knew it wouldn't get any easier because Burns came into the match ranked #10. But the Mountaineers were up to the task and defeated the Bulldogs 34-27 to end their reg- ular season with a 5-1 confer- ence record and grab the second playoff spot. Burns, boasting a pair of highly touted seniors, 140- pound Josh Wortman and 215- pound Calvin Bostic, both ranked #2 by NCMAT, came in with a lot of confidence. The Bulldogs grabbed an early 3-0 lead, but it didn’t last long as the next four matches went to the Mountaineers. Tyler McDaniel, Tanner Putnam, Mountaineers’ pressing defense held the much-bigger and more- experienced Tigers without a shot for the first thee minutes of the game. The Mountaineers rolled to a 21-8 first quarter lead and a 49-19 halftime advantage. The crowd gave them a stand- ing ovation when they left the floor at intermission. “It was special,” McDowell said. “We jumped out to the big. lead in the first quarter, and in the second quarter we didn’t miss a beat. We played four good quarters against them this time.” Foard made a slight run at the Mountaineers early in the sec- ond half, but it didn’t last long. The Mounties built their lead to 65-29 going into the fourth quarter. In the earlier game at Foard, the Mountaineers not only saw Foard hit 32 shots from the foul line but they didn’t get any free throw opportunities. This time, KM hit 14 of 16 from the charity stripe and hit 70 percent of their shots from the floor in an amaz- ing display of wide-open offense. The Mountaineers hit nine 3- point field goals. Dashon Young came off the bench and hit four 3's. “The kids just shot the lights" Never a Cover Charge for Ladies on Band Night DINE IN ONLY SPORTS RESTAURANT Join Us for Dana and Jo's Superbowl Party, Feb. 3rd! LIVE ENTERTAINMENT Wed. ...Rogers Waters Thurs. ...James Bates and Rick Craft Karoke Show Fri. ....Rythmn Method Band i ...Fire Creek Band Sat. ET rn York Road, Gastonia + Beside Family Dollar SCE OLR REET ranked 6th by NCMAT, Deric Carroll and Johnny Gilliard all put up points to give the Mountaineers a 16-3 lead that they never relinquished. Orlando Curry, Brad Camp, John Bryant, and Brandon McClain also won for KMHS. The Mountaineers travel to Hickory Saturday to compete in the conference tournament. Action begins at 9 a.m. The dual team State playoffs begin next Tuesday, with the Mountaineers taking on power- ful East Gaston of the Big South 3A at East Gaston High. The individual Western Regional Tournament is sched- uled for February 15-16 and the State Championship Tournament is slated for February 22-23. 147 - Bryan Beattie (B) d. Kyle Hargraves 9-3; 154 - Tyler McDaniel (KM) major dec. John Grellman 15-5; 162 - Tanner Putnam (KM) d. Ricky Hall 7-3; 191 - Johnny Gilliard (KM) p. Angelo Lee; 217 - Calvin Bostic (B) p- Josh Yon; 277 - Orlando Curry (KM) d. Luke Mascato 4- 3; 105 - Chris Albea (B) won by forfeit; 114 - Brad Camp (KM) p. Brandon Spangler; 121 - John Bryant (KM) p. Chris Sparks; 127 - Nathan Davis (B) d. Brooks Tate 6-5; 132 - Alejandro Uribe (B) d. Vince Keller 10-5; 137 - Brandon McClain (KM) d.Dan Grellman 12-9; 140 - Josh Wortman (B) won by forfeit. ers, SWEKFH out,” McDowell said, “It was boom, boom boom all night.” Four players scored in double figures for the Mountaineers, led by Josh Gash with 16 points. Young added 14 and Brandon Houze and Brandon Roberts scored 12 points each. The victory gave the Mountaineers a 6-1 record in the Southwestern Foothills 3A and a . half-game lead over Hickory, which was idle Friday and ended the week with a 5-1 record after knocking off Foard the previous Tuesday. - The victory puts the Mountaineers in an excellent position to contend for one of the four state playoff berths allotted to the SWFH, but McDowell warned that the Mountaineers can’t afford to take anyone lightly. “Sometimes when you get a big win like this you tend to have a letdown the next time out,” he said. “We can’t afford that. We've got five games left and we have to try to win all of them. We don’t want to be in a position that we have to win the conference tournament to make the playoffs.” The Mountaineers, were scheduled to play at Burns Tuesday night. They travel to Crest Friday and host R-S Central next Tuesday. Their final regular season home game is Friday, Feb. 8 against St. Stephens and they close out the regular season on Tuesday, Feb. 12 at Hickory in what, at this point at least, appears to be a game that could decide the con- ference championship. “It will take four wins” to nail down a playoff position prior to the conference tournament, McDowell predicted. “But I think we can win them all,” he said. “We may come up short, but I really believe we can get beat them all. I just hope we don’t have a letdown.” The victory over Foard was KM'’s third straight against a taller and more experienced opponent. KM had earlier beat- en St. Stephens and Hickory. “It’s good to win a big game like that,” McDowell said of Friday's victory. “I knew we had a shot at beating them but I didn’t think it would be any- thing like that. “It was a total team effort. It was exceptional from the begin See Foard, 7A ea a