A nine-point Union Pines halftime lead had disappeared in the wake of quick shots and turnovers. Now trailing 50-49, point guard Timmy McCrimmon helped restore order on the listing Viking ship — and his mates followed him. The result was a 69-58 Tri-County Conference victory Tuesday night on the home court.
“We went a little too much individually for a few minutes and it kind of got away from us,” said Viking coach Bobby Purvis of the final minute of the third quarter and early part of the fourth.
After Cross’ basket, the game became a duel for the next four minutes between the two 5-foot-10 guards. But McCrimmon got much more help from his friends.
“We were making too many turnovers and somebody had to take charge and step up,” McCrimmon said. “Tonight it was my turn. The next time it might be somebody else.”
McCrimmon answered the go-ahead basket by Cross with a 12-foot jumper from the right side to regain the lead. A steal by Eric Hamer and another short jumper by McCrimmon made it 53-50.
But a layup off an inbounds play by Chris Rich and a trey by Cross put the Cougars back in front 55-53.
“When they went up by two, that was a big time in the game,” Purvis said. “Timmy McCrimmon stepped up a lot in the last two or three minutes and made some big plays.”
The Vikings’ Derrick Brower, who scored 11 points in the first half, finally got his first touch on the offensive end in the second half and made both ends of a one-and-one to tie the game at 55-55 with 3:11 left on the clock. McCrimmon then grabbed a rebound and went the length of the court for another jumper to put the Vikings ahead for good.
An inside basket by Brower off an assist from Alex Martin made it 59-55 before Cross sank another trey, his 10th basket in 10 attempts, to make it 59-58. But McCrimmon fed Martin for two and another bucket by Brower combined with six for six from the line by McCrimmon and Frye closed the door on the Cougars.
“When you don’t have a lot of them, we’ll take everything we can get,” Purvis said of the win. “Derrick gave us a good game down low and Alex and Joey gave us good games too.”
Brower led the Viking scorers with 17 and also grabbed nine rebounds. Martin contributed five assists and four steals to go with 14 points, while McCrimmon and Frye each scored 11. Cross with 24 and Rich with 19 led the Cougar scoring. The Cougars sank 53 percent of their field goal attempts to 43 percent for the Vikings, but took 14 less shots and 11 less free throws.
The victory improved the Vikings’ record to 3-4 in the conference and 6-11 overall. Tonight they entertain High Point Central at 7:30 p.m., a team they beat 10 days ago by the score of 67-57. Southwestern Randolph falls to 1-5 in the conference and 9-7 overall.
In a game between the conference leaders Tuesday, Trinity (6-0 conference, 15-1 overall) defeated Ragsdale (6-1, 8-2) 65-64.
SW Randolph 9 16 19 14 — 58
Union Pines 9 25 13 22 — 69
SW Randolph — Rich 9-15 1-2 19, Boswell 0-0 0-0 0, Dunlap 1-5 2-2 4, Cross 10-11 1-2 24, Dubis 1-2 0-0 2, Jeffus 1-4 0-2 2, Hewitt 1-3 1-2 3, Lamp 0-2 0-1 0, Johnson 0-0 0-2 0, Copple 1-3 2-4 4. Totals – 24-45 7-17 58.
Union Pines — Brower 6-12 5-8 17, Frye 2-7 5-6 11, Martin 6-14, 1-4 14, McCrimmon 4-6 3-4 11, Hamer 1-2 0-0 2, Pateo 3-7 1-2 7, Anderson 1-4 1-4 3, Fields 2-4 0-0 4, Holland 0-2 0-0 0, Williams 0-1 0-0 0. Totals – 25-59 16-28 69.
Three-point goals: SW Randolph 3 (Cross 3); Union Pines 3 (Frye 2, Martin).
