BOONVILLE — For the second year in a row, East Wilkes concluded its boys basketball regular season by avenging an earlier loss to Starmount.
This time, the Cardinals spoiled the Rams’ senior night with a 59-51win on Friday to secure the No. 5 seed in the upcoming conference tournament.
The tournament, which will be hosted by East Wilkes, began on Monday night.
A key reason for the Cardinals’ win, which avenged a 56-49 loss to the Rams in Ronda on Jan. 23, was the first-half performance from Owen Combs.
The senior was one of two players to finish in double figures with 11 points; he scored East Wilkes’ first six points and helped the visitors build the lead to as many as nine (14-5) with a triple.
Starmount (8-16, 3-9) did its best to stay close, but the Cardinals used an 8-0 run to extend the lead to double digits and pushed the lead to as many as 18 at 35-17 on a pair of Reece Dobbins free throws.
The Rams, who enter the conference tournament as the No. 6 seed, used a strong second half from Luke Collins to keep things close, getting the deficit to as little as five (47-42) in the third quarter with a basket.
Collins, a junior, scored 12 of his team-high 15 points in the second half.
The Cardinals pushed the lead to nine on a bucket from Andrew Tharpe and a Payton Luffman layup.
Compounding matters for the Rams was Colton Allen, who complemented Collins in double figures with 12 points, fouling out with 4:12 to play.
But the Rams (8-14, 3-9) were still in the game as 1-of-2 free throws from Jordon Dobson cut the deficit to 54-49.
Starmount had a several chances to trim the deficit but free-throw struggles prevented that — the Rams finished 11-of-31 from the charity stripe (the Cardinals didn’t fare much better as they went 13-for-29).
Tharpe paced the Cardinals with a game-high 19 points and Luffman added seven.
In addition to Collins and Allen, Corey Armstrong and Jadon Hurt-Bailey added seven and six points, respectively.
East Wilkes 59, Starmount 51
East Wilkes 16 22 9 12 — 59
Starmount 11 13 18 9 — 51
EAST WILKES: Owen Combs 4 1-2 11; Payton Luffman 3 1-1 7; Phoenix Blackburn 0 3-8 3; Andrew Tharpe 7 4-8 19; Seth Lambert 2 0-2 4; Mason Sparks 2 0-0 5; Brady Hall 0 0-0 0; Grayson Sparks 0 0-0 0; Logan Brown 0 0-0 0; Levi Sadler 2 1-2 5. Team Totals: 21 13-29 59.
STARMOUNT: Luke Collins 5 4-13 15; Jadon Hurt-Bailey 3 0-2 6; Colton Allen 5 2-5 12; Preston Williams 2 1-2 5; Mason Anthony 0 0-0 0; Jordon Dobson 1 1-2 3; Cole Freed 0 0-0 0; Sean Gregory 1 2-4 4; Corey Armstrong 3 1-2 7. Team Totals: 20 11-31 51.
THREE-POINTERS: East Wilkes: Combs 2, Sparks, Tharpe. Starmount: Collins
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