SILER CITY — If the clock continues to run while free throws are being shot, it means one team’s having a good night.
The other? Not so much.
Such was the case for the Chatham Charter men’s basketball team on Saturday evening, which kept its perfect season alive (8-0) during a 50-point thumping of conference and Chatham-area rival Woods Charter, 87-37.
Leading the charge for the Knights was the duo of sophomore forward Adam Harvey (24 points, 14 rebounds, six assists) and senior forward Trevor Golden (21 points, six rebounds), who, combined, outscored the entire Wolves’ team by eight points.
“Adam and Trevor are two of my captains, two of the leaders of this team. We challenge them every day to lead by example and these other guys will follow them, and these other guys do,” said Chatham Charter Head Coach Jason Messier. “These guys play team basketball and I couldn’t be more proud of them for that.”
The Knights hopped out to an early 10-0 lead, with all scoring courtesy of Harvey and Golden, both of whom used their size to bully their way into the paint to get a couple of hard-fought buckets. Wolves junior Nate Crump would then make a free throw with 5:31 left in the first quarter to make the score 10-1. That nine-point difference was the closest the game would be for the remainder of the night.
After the game, Messier chalked up the team’s first half — after which they held a 42-23 lead — to be largely experimental.
“Early on in the first half, we tried a couple of different things, just so maybe we can use them later on,” said Messier, “but then in that second half, we just got back to what we typically do.”
The second half featured a better showing than the still-dominant first. For the Knights, that meant tighter defense, better offensive efficiency and the institution of the running clock.
In 2014, the NCHSAA’s board of directors approved a “mercy rule” for football and basketball — the running clock. In the latter sport, there has to be a point differential of 40 in the second half for the rule to go into effect. The clock runs through free throws and all other dead-ball situations, aside from timeouts called by coaches, to move the game along.
On Saturday, the running clock started a short time after Chatham Charter sat its starters around the six-minute mark in the fourth quarter, up 75-34.
Chatham Charter outscored Woods Charter, 45-14, in the second half, which included the Knights holding the Wolves to just three points in the fourth quarter. The defense — especially both the full- and half-court presses — was suffocating, to say the least.
“We had a goal coming into this game to hold them below 40 points as a team and we did that,” said Messier. “We look at that press as sometimes it’s good for us to speed up the game, sometimes we use it to slow down the game and just get teams uncomfortable ... We practice it every day.”
Knights sophomore forward Aamir Mapp (two blocks, two steals) was one of the game’s premier defenders, occasionally upsetting his opponents. Early in the fourth quarter, Mapp blocked a shot by Wolves sophomore Noah Hyman, who fell to the ground and ended up earning a technical foul out of frustration.
Offensively, the Knights are one of the Central Tar Heel conference’s powerhouses, as illustrated by their performance against the Wolves. This season, they’ve been proof that you don’t have to be flashy to win games.
Many of Chatham Charter’s offensive possessions emphasize two things: ball movement and attacking the rim.
With 3:13 left in the first quarter, the Knights pushed down the floor after a missed three-pointer by the Wolves, but slowed it down as they approached the top of the key. Here, three passes were made behind the arc as the guards waited, patiently, for Harvey to pause and slide underneath a defender to receive a pass, make a quick post-move and get an easy shot in the paint. This is Messier’s offense in a nutshell.
Despite being, by far, the highest-scoring team in their conference, the Knights have made just 15 three-pointers all season — including zero on Saturday during their 87-point performance. It’s not their style.
“I’d rather have a good layup than a good jump shot,” said Harvey.
Toward the end of the game, after Chatham Charter brought in its second unit, Knights freshman forward Jonah Ridgill — who had scored just two points on the year entering Saturday — exploded for eight straight points, 10 total, including a steal that led to a fast break layup. His teammates seemed to love every second of it.
“I feel like they deserve just as much cheering on as they give us because they give us a good three quarters,” said Golden. “So I’m trying to cheer them on as much as I can because they work just as hard as we do in practice.”
Saturday’s game was only Woods Charter’s third of the season, now 0-4 after a loss to Southern Wake on Monday, after a couple-of-weeks hiatus earlier this month. While it wasn’t the result they’d hoped for, there were some bright spots.
Crump (14 points) presented a major problem for the Knights, especially in the middle of the lane, as his relentlessness to get to the basket and grab his missed shots led him to 11 points in the first half alone.
The Wolves’ top three scorers rounded out with Hyman (nine points) and junior Emi Hutter-Demarco (seven points), who wowed the crowd on multiple occasions.
Reporter Victor Hensley can be reached at vhensley@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @Frezeal33