SPENCER — South Davidson’s girls usually make a living by out-quicking people.
South Davidson ran into even faster folks on Wednesday in the North Rowan gym, but the Wildcats were experienced enough and smart enough to adjust, and they prevailed 56-48.
“Usually, we’re the scrappy little team,” South Davidson coach Fonda Jackson said. “You just don’t see the kind of quickness that North Rowan has very often. I tried to tell my girls how quick they were, but it’s just hard to understand how much pressure they can put on until you’re playing against them.”
It’s a huge road win that puts the veteran Wildcats, who have six seniors, including the Larsen triplets, alone in first place in the YVC.
North (4-5, 4-1) has taken its lumps against bigger Rowan schools, but this was its first setback to a 1A team.
South Davidson (8-2, 5-0) has lost only to solid 3As Central Davidson and Ledford, and South Davidson also won once against Central.
North freshman Special Washington was tremendous, scoring a season-best 26 points.
South Davidson was able to overcome her with Lauren Sigmon scoring 17, Holly Wall getting 11, and Madison Sigmon scoring nine.
North stunned South Davidson in the first five minutes, forcing a flood of turnovers.
“We got off to a good lead,” North coach Brian Lytton said. “But even early on we were missing layups, and we continued to miss them all night.”
Washington had four steals in the opening period, and Demeria Robinson had three. North threw potential knockout punches and led 16-5 after Washington knocked down back-to-back 3s.
“We were passing it around, moving the ball, getting good shots,” Washington said.
South Davidson responded with a huge second quarter in which it drilled North 24-9.
“I think we got the bigheads about how well we started off the game,” Washington said.
South Davidson has fast guards in Madi Beeson and the Sigmons, and the ballhandling tightened up. The Wildcats made just three turnovers in a fierce second quarter and they wrecked North on the boards, with Wall and Danielle Fee pounding away for stickbacks.
And North shot 4-for-19 in that game-swinging quarter against the Wildcats’ tenacious defense.
“We’re small, so boxing out and rebounding are always critcal for us,” Jackson said. “We started doing a better job of it.”
It looked over when the Wildcats stretched their lead to 13 late in the third quarter, but North had one charge left.
North got within 52-47 when Washington finished an impossible, lefty drive with 4:50 left, but the Cavs didn’t make another field goal, and SD made enough free throws to hold on.
“We didn’t play terrible,” Lytton said. “We just looked young, and South Davidson is a very experienced team.”

SOUTH DAVIDSON (56) — L. Sigmon 17, Wall 11, M. Sigmon 9, Beeson 7, Fee 5 , H. Sigmon 3, Grubb 2, Strother 2,
NORTH ROWAN (48) — Washington 26, Royer 9, Robinson 4, Carter 3, Farmer 2, Lingle 2, Allen 2, Sells.

S. Davidson 7 24 14 11 — 56
N. Rowan 16 9 14 9 — 48