McCants Tremendous from Three in Royals Win
N. AUGUSTA, S.C.-- One of the biggest knocks on UNC bound Rashad McCants is that he can't shoot.
Well he must have overheard his critics.
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McCants was a man on a mission on Thursday night at the Nike Peach Jam Invitational Basketball Tournament, pumping in 31 points on five of eight shooting from beyond the arc to buoy the Charlotte Royals to a 69-66 victory over BABC.
McCants hit four threes in the first half to stake the Royals to a 36-28 halftime edge.
Early in the second half, Charlotte hit a crisis point, as the Beantowners opened the second half with a 14-7 run to slice the Royals' lead to 43-42.
An 18-9 surge by the Royals, capped by a McCants' trey, pushed the lead back up to 10 points at 61-51.
That's when McCants personally took the dagger to BABC.
McCants dunked off an alley-oop pass from Justin Gray, followed by a Gray three set the stage for one of the contest's most memorable plays.
McCants drove right into the gut of the BABC defense, maneuvering around, through and eventually over BOTH Torin Francis and Keith Butler and finished inside to cap a 7-0 run that boosted the edge to 68-53 with five minutes to play.
That was capped by a rebel yell from McCants and a little trash talking.
Boy, did he ever want to win last night!
Although overshadowed, one performance in the Royals' victory should not go unnoticed.
Isiah Hunter, a 6-2 rising senior combo/shooting guard from Independence H.S. in Charlotte, also made some huge shots for the Royals, finishing with 17 points after connecting on all three of his three point attempts.
Both McCants and Hunter made BABC pay for pressuring the ball in the backcourt, as Royals' floor general Gray (12 points) was able to work the ball up the court quickly to open wings all game long.
The result was a crisp 10 of 17 three point shooting effort by the Royals and a critical three point victory in pool play.
For BABC, Indiana bound Marshall Strickland led the way with 16 points. Even so, he did not have a great game, as he was unable to consistently feed the ball to 6-9 power stud Torin Francis.
Francis managed 14 points, which was truly amazing considering that he barely touched the ball in the game's final 10 minutes.
Charlotte improved to 2-0 in pool play while BABC dropped to 1-1.