GASTON – Sand Rock basketball coach Brian Mackey cautioned his team Saturday about the last time they played Gaston, which was three days earlier.

The Bulldogs were minus two players in the Gaston Holiday Tournament final against the Wildcats, which helped translate into a 25-point Sand Rock victory.

Things were a bit closer in the two teams’ latest clash, but the result was still the same for the Wildcats as they claimed a 57-44 decision.

The win pushed Class 2A, No. 6 Sand Rock’s record to 13-2. The Wildcats have now won 12 games in a row. Gaston dropped to 10-4.

“They came to play,” Mackey said of Gaston. “Last time, they didn’t play quite as hard as they did when we had them in the tournament. They were missing a couple of players, and I thought they had a different attitude tonight. I was telling my guys ‘It’s a different team playing tonight. We’ve got to have four quarters’, and we showed up to play.”

Aiding Sand Rock in the early going was free-throw shooting. The Wildcats connected on 13 of 16 from the charity stripe in the first half, leading to a 29-17 advantage at the break. They finished the game by hitting 15 of 20 from the free-throw line.

As Mackey said, his guys showed up to play. All nine players who were dressed out scored.

Leading the charge was Justin Kyser, who netted 12 points a pair of 3-pointers. Brannon Burt added 11 points and five assists. Chad Thompson came away with 10 points and Drew Norris chipped in with eight points. Riley Norris finished with seven points, nine rebounds and four assists.

“I’ve got 10 that can play, and when they’re giving their best and playing hard, there’s not much difference between top and bottom,” Mackey said. “It helps us pressing and trapping. We created a lot of turnovers. We finished them late, but early on we didn’t finish.

“I thought we settled in and played well in the third and fourth quarters. Free throws kept us there within a 10-12 point lead. We weren’t bad off, but we should have been up a little bit more if we would have made out layups. But give Gaston credit. They came to play also.”

Darius Lewis led the Bulldogs with 19 points. Kadyrian Morris added 13 points and Jared Bogle finished with 10 points.

Girls

Gaston 51, Sand Rock 20 – After a slow start by both teams, Class 1A, No. 5 Gaston managed to find a rhythm in the second quarter and maintained it the rest of the game in a 51-20 thrashing of Sand Rock.

Morgan Beaird led the Lady Bulldogs (10-3) with 15 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Lauren Lowery also had a pair of threes to finish with six points. Kris Lawson and Kierra Porter also both finished with six points.

Gena Farmer led Sand Rock (8-8) with nine points, nine rebounds and four steals. Amber Henderson finished with five points and three assists.

Gaston held a 6-3 lead at the end of the first quarter, but blew the open in the second by going on a 16-4 run and held a 22-7 advantage at the break. The Bulldogs led 39-13 at the end of the third quarter.