Staff report

THOMASVILLE — South Rowan’s first girls basketball win of the season didn’t take nearly as long as many expected.

South (1-1, 1-0) won on the road at East Davidson on Monday for a Central Carolina Conference victory.

Putting four players in double figures, two of them freshmen, the Raiders beat the Golden Eagles, 55-49, to give new coach Alex Allen her first triumph.

Allen, a 1,000-point scorer for Carson not long ago, is a very young head coach. She was playing for the University of Lynchburg at this time last year.

“This is exciting,” Allen said. “It’s a different feeling than that first win you get as a player, but it’s still a great feeling. I feel very thankful and fortunate that my first team is playing so well together. We talk about just continuing to work hard every day to improve. When you do that, good stuff usually happens for you.”

The last four seasons, South was able to lean on Janiya Downs, the No. 1 scorer in school history. Now the Raiders are led by sophomore Bethany Rymer, a ball-handler and scorer with some size, and senior Madison McGuire, an excellent shooter.

McGuire made three 3-pointers and scored 13. Rymer was outstanding at the foul line (8-for-9) and scored 15. They got a lot of scoring help from freshmen Mackenzie Chabala (13) and Madelyn Cherry (10). Chabala has been a surprise. She’s scored 22 points in South’s two games.

South started strong and led 19-6 after the first quarter. That cushion proved to be important. East Davidson (0-3, 0-1) cut the Raiders’ lead to 29-24 by halftime.

“We led all the way, but we had to play through a lot of foul trouble,” Allen said. “When Bethany got in foul trouble in the third quarter, we were concerned, but the girls pushed through it.”

Annie Sechrist scored 19 for the Golden Eagles, while Skylar Grubb had 14.

South, which opened with a non-conference loss at East Rowan, will return to action on Dec. 3 at home against Ledford.

 

SOUTH (55) — Rymer 15, McGuire 13, M. Chabala 13, Cherry 10, Rollins 3, Moore 1, Redmon, Littlejohn.

E. DAVIDSON  (49) —  Sechrist 19, Grubb 14, Hill 9, Warrick 5, Mahan 2, Baxley.

South Rowan    19   10   14   12   — 55

East Davidson  6    18    7     18   — 49