Staff report

MOUNT ULLA — With a healthy Ella Hobbs, Jay M. Robinson could have made it interesting.

With Hobbs, a 6-foot-4 Ohio State recruit, sidelined by a knee injury, a much anticipated showdown turned out to be a pretty routine South Piedmont Conference game for West Rowan’s strong girls.

The Falcons put five in double figures, pounded the Bulldogs 84-47 in the West gym and took over sole possession of first place in the league.

In a three-day stretch, the Falcons won big at home against Northwest Cabarrus and Robinson, their most serious challengers in the SPC. The unusual Thursday game with the Bulldogs was due to a weather-related postponement.

West (11-1, 7-0) has six experienced players back from a team that went 31-0 and took the 3A state championship in 2022-23 and now has won 22 straight SPC games.

Robinson (10-3, 6-1) is a newcomer to the SPC this season, after moving up from 2A.

West jumped out to a 14-5 lead.

After a quarter, it was 26-10. Robinson settled down some in the second quarter. West took a 41-26 lead to halftime.

“We got the fast start we wanted, but then we got in some foul trouble and couldn’t do some of the things that we had prepared to do,” West coach Ashley Poole said. “We couldn’t be as aggressive defensively as we wanted to be.”

West maintained a comfortable cushion in the third quarter and pulled away from the Bulldogs in the early stages of the fourth.

West reserves finished things off the last two minutes.

Camri Hobbs, a 6-foot-3 sophomore guard who is Ella’s younger sister, scored 29 for the Bulldogs. Li’Ara Batts scored 16.

Lauren Arnold led the Falcons with 21 points. Mya Edwards (18), Emma Clarke (16), Makaylah Tenor (12) and Tiara Thompson (11) also piled up points.

Edwards scored her season high and tied her career high. Tenor scored her season high. Arnold, who has scored in double figures in every game this season, matched her season high.

“Mya had a big scoring game, and we’ve been asking Makaylah to look to score more, and she did,” Poole said.

De’Mya Phifer was one of the Falcons in foul trouble and didn’t score the way she normally does.

“One of the things these experienced girls have learned over the years is that you’re not going to score big every night, but on those nights you can still find other ways to help the team win,” Poole said. “De’Mya was key with her defense and handling the ball.”

West plays again on Friday against Lake Norman Charter, one of the bottom-half squads in the nine-team SPC, so no drama is expected.

West, which has a loss to 4A Lake Norman, is second behind A.C. Reynolds in the 3A West RPI rankings.

Robinson is fifth. Northwest Cabarrus is 18th.

“We want to learn something from every game and we learned some things tonight,” Poole said. “We’ve got a very good team, but we’re going to keep building.”

Robinson    10    16    14    7    — 47

West            26   15     16   27   — 84

WEST —     Arnold 21, Edwards 18, Clarke 16, Tenor 12, Thompson 11, Phifer 4, Martin 2.

 

 

 

 

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