Staff report

THOMASVILLE — MaKayla Noble missed the game with illness and Jamyrah Cherry’s shots weren’t falling, so Salisbury got off to a slow start at Thomasville on Friday.

Fortunately for the Hornets, they have a human Energizer Bunny in guard Shamya Arnold. For a while, it was Arnold 6, Bulldogs 0, but Arnold’s teammates eventually got things going and routed the Bulldogs, 54-7.

Salisbury (12-5, 6-1) closed the Central Carolina Conference matchup with a 36-0 run, and those 36-0 runs are always helpful. Torese Evans finished the run with a steal and layup with two seconds left.

Arnold scored 12 of Salisbury’s 23 in the first half and tied her career high with 16 points.

“She’s been playing great all season,” Salisbury coach Lakai Brice said.

Salisbury shut out Thomasville (0-13, 0-7) in the first meeting at Salisbury and led 8-0 after the first quarter of the rematch.

Arnold made two 3-pointers in the second quarter, but Thomasville’s Madison Pouncy suddenly tossed in two 3-pointers to make it an 18-7 game. The Hornets led 23-7 at halftime.

Salisbury picked up the pace and the intensity level in the third quarter. Cherry and Mariana Zapata made two 3-pointers each to blow out the Bulldogs.

“The press got us going in the third quarter and we were able to play everyone a lot of minutes, including some of our jayvee girls,” Brice said.

Salisbury             8    15    23   8   — 54

Thomasville       0       7      0    0    — 7

SALISBURY — Arnold 16, Evans 9, J. Cherry 8, Zapata 6, McCombs 5, A. Cherry 4, Peeler 2, Spruill 2, Myers 2.

THOMASVILLE — Pouncy 6, Scott 1.