PILOT MOUNTAIN — It was hot, heated and out of control, but the North Surry boys outlasted East Surry on the Cardinals home floor Friday, 63-58 in overtime.

J.B. Coram had a game-high 25 points, including six of the Greyhounds’ 11 points in overtime.

Neither team was able to find a rhythm early, hindered by 24 first half fouls, 16 of which went to North Surry.

Conversely, neither team reached the bonus in the second half until the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

Coram changed the momentum of the game after East Surry took a 46-41 lead into the fourth quarter, throwing down a monster two-handed slam to ignite the Greyhounds crowd and shorten the lead with seven minutes remaining.

The turnover bug bit both teams through the middles stages of the fourth, with North cutting the East lead to 46-45 before allowing the Cardinals to pull back out to a 50-45 lead with more than four minutes remaining.

After North’s Terry Barr’s layup and subsequent free throw cut the East lead to 51-49, the Greyhounds Tanner Hiatt had the play of the game when he drained a 3-pointer from the left corner to give his team the lead at 52-51.

East Surry fought back to tie the score at 52 but neither team could capitalize on their final shots at the win.

Coram took over in the overtime, coming up with two crucial buckets, including a one-handed slam with under a minute left to put North up 60-54.The Greyhounds hit their free throws down the stretch and escaped with the hard-fought win.

After nearly disappearing for a stretch in the first half, North Surry coach Chris Butler admitted the ability to feed Coram in the second half was the difference in the game.

“We want J.B. to have the ball inside and he did a good job of finishing when he had opportunities and we did a good job of finding him,” Butler said. “We feel like he’s one of the better players around and we need to take advantage of it and I thought we began to do that, especially in the second half.”

East Surry coach Jason Anderson said he certainly wasn’t surprised Coram was the Greyhounds focus on offense, but said the senior center did a good job of taking over the game.

“We knew that was going to be their game plan coming into it and we talked about that the other night, but it’s hard to guard people when you stay in foul trouble,” Anderson said. “We don’t have a true post player down there and we ran into the same problem against West Stokes. We are a guard-oriented team and that’s probably the one thing we are missing is a post presence inside. Our biggest kid’s 6-2 and I’m asking a lot of our guards to go down there and cover him, but he hit some tough shots. He’s a good player, you’ve just got to tip your hat to him.”

North Surry 63, East Surry 58 OT

NS — 14 15 12 11 11 — 63

ES — 19 11 16 6 6 — 58

North Surry — J.B. Coram 25, Blaize Brintle 12, T. Hiatt 8, Barr 7, Easter 4, Ratcliff 2, Utt 2, Edwards 2 Draughn 1

East Surry — Matt Covington 18, Andrew Hunter 16, Diamont 7, Gilley 5, Johnson 3, Hoosier 3, S. Covington 2, Shinault 2, Chilton 2

Cards outlast Greyhounds

PILOT MOUNTAIN — East Surry avenged an early season loss at North Surry Friday, holding on to beat the Greyhounds 41-40.

The game ended in bizarre fashion, with North’s Nicole Rumplasch having a chance at three game tying free throws with just .1 of a second on the clock.

East Surry’s Autumn Cole knocked down two free throws with 5.5 seconds remaining to give the Cardinals a 41-38 advantage.

North Surry coach Shane Slate then called timeout to set up a play, but when Rumplasch caught the ball at midcourt she immediately fired at the basket, missing everything and giving the ball back to East with just less than four seconds remaining.

But Rumplasch made up for the mistake when she intercepted the ensuing inbound pass, made a quick move to the basket and tried to heave up a desperation 3-pointer only to be fouled by East Surry’s Kelsey Long just a split second before the final buzzer sounded.

With three shots to send the game into overtime, Rumplasch made the first, but rimmed out the second, all but sealing the game.

It was a wild end to a defensive oriented game, which saw both teams struggle to find a rhythm offensively.

East Surry 41, North Surry 40

NS — 11 11 8 10 — 40

ES — 18 10 10 11 — 41

North Surry — Midkiff 7, Campbell 7, Culler 6, Bunker 6, N. Rumplasch 6, Hodges 6, K. Rumplasch 2

East Surry — Kelsey Long 10, Bryant 9, Cole 9, Fulp 5, Merritt 4, Nichols 4