Starmount’s Eli Wingler goes up for a layup in the first half of last Wednesday’s game.
RONDA — Avery Wallis spent many a night on the bench at the far end of the East Wilkes High School gymnasium as a former player, and later a coach, for the Cardinals.
Last Wednesday night, the 2013 East Wilkes graduate and former Lees-McRae College men’s basketball player returned to that same gym.
But this time, as the head coach of the Starmount boy’s basketball team, which captured a 64-45 win over the Cardinals.
When asked how he felt about being back at his alma mater for the first time as an opponent, the first-year head coach said, “it’s different being on the other bench.”
But when the ball went up, Wallis’ focus shifted to leading his players to their second Northwest 1A Conference win in less than 24 hours. The Rams (4-13, 3-7) also knocked off Elkin 75-38 last Tuesday night.
Starmount used a quick start and built an early 8-0 advantage, highlighted by layups from Xavier King and Zack Dezern.
The Cardinals answered with a 7-0 run behind the play of Braxton Long. The junior scored all 12 of East Wilkes’ first-quarter points.
East Wilkes (6-12, 3-7) continued to claw back from the early hole, and even led 20-19 on a Briggs Gentry layup.
But Starmount took control of the game with a 9-0 run, highlighted by a pair of layups from King off turnovers he created. The junior finished with a game-high 26 points.
Leading 30-23 at halftime, the Rams wasted little time stretching to lead to double digits in the third quarter, punctuated by a jumper from Dezern.
Eli Wingler and Zack Armstrong converted on put backs to make it 38-23.
Armstrong, who also finished in double figures with 10 points, gave the visiting Rams their biggest lead of the game at 23 (59-36) with a layup. Dezern and Wingler finished with eight and seven points, respectively.
Starmount returned to its home court on Friday night but dropped a 75-56 decision against league leader South Stokes. They returned to action on Tuesday at Alleghany.
Long scored 14 of his team-high 16 points in the first half and Eric Adams finished with seven for the Cardinals.
East Wilkes, which dropped a 75-48 decision to North Stokes Friday night, bounced back Saturday afternoon and defeated Elkin 49-44 to snap a four-game losing streak.
The Cardinals will close out the regular season at Mount Airy (tonight) and at Starmount (Friday).
Starmount 17 13 22 12 — 64
East Wilkes 12 11 10 12 — 45
STARMOUNT: Xavier King 10 5-5 26; Quadarius McClinton 3 0-2 6; Zack Dezern 4 0-1 8; Eli Wingler 3 1-2 7; Zack Armstrong 5 0-0 10; Davion Coleman 0 0-0 0; Jadon Hurt-Bailey 2 0-0 4; Jaylyn Adams 0 0-0 0; Preston Williams 0 2-2 2; Anthony Rangel 0 0-0 0; Darren Shore 0 0-0 0; Bryson Mouck 0 0-0 0. Team Totals: 27 8-12 64.
EAST WILKES: Briggs Gentry 1 0-2 2; Eric Adams 3 1-2 7; Weston Brown 2 0-0 4; Braxton Long 7 0-0 16; Ledger Blackburn 2 1-2 5; Austin Blackburn 0 0-0 0; Mason Lyon 0 0-0 0; Easton Martin 1 0-0 2; Gavin Dowell 0 0-0 0; James Cook 1 0-0 3; Will Martin 0 2-2 2; Noah Spriggs 1 0-0 2; Owen Combs 0 0-0 0. Team Totals: 16 4-10 45.
THREE-POINTERS: Starmount: King. East Wilkes: Long 2, Cook.