From staff reports

LANDIS — East Rowan guard Mary Church scored a career-high 25 in Tuesday’s 72-59 loss to Robinson and posted another PR on Friday with 26 in a wild 61-55 victory at South Rowan.

South has trouble when quicker South Piedmont Conference teams apply defensive pressure, but this was mostly a half-court game. Both teams ran their offense and both teams have good structure and some shooters. Points piled up.

Church is really intense and aggressive with the ball and South (3-16, 1-11) struggled to keep her from attacking the rim and getting to the foul line. She only made one 3-pointer, but she made 13 free throws.

Hannah Waddell, the best pure shooter on the floor, provided early separation for the favored Mustangs (10-10, 6-7) by drilling back-to-back 3-pointers from the top of the wheel. Those bombs gave East a 13-4 lead. Savannah Wise jumped off the bench and closed the quarter with a 3-ball for a 22-13 East advantage.

Church scored nine in the second quarter, and East appeared to be on the verge of blowing the Raiders out, pushing the lead to 15 points. But South didn’t fold, started getting the ball inside to Kynlee Dextraze and got a 3-pointer from Hannah Atwell to finish the half. East’s lead was 37-28.

South experienced an offensive drought in the third quarter, going seven minutes without a field goal. Atwell finally made another 3-pointer to end the dry spell, but East had surged ahead by as many as 18 points and took a 52-35 lead to the fourth quarter.

That’s when South got really hot. The Raiders made four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, two by Avery Fisher. The Raiders scored 11 straight points at the start of the quarter to cut East’s lead to 52-46.

When Dextraze scored in the paint with 1:10 left, East’s lead was down to 56-53, but that’s as close as it got. The Mustangs were able to put the ball in Church’s hands and hang on. East didn’t make a field goal in the fourth quarter, but the Mustangs did make nine free throws. Church made seven of those nine.

Waddell scored 14 for East, while Isis Smith had nine.

Atwell scored a career-high for South with 15. Dextraze had 17. Fisher scored nine.

East     22     15     15    9   — 61

South   13    15    7       20   — 55

EAST — Church 26, Waddell 14, Smith 9, Miller 4, Wise 3, Shipp 2, J. Featherstone 2, S. Featherstone 1.

SOUTH – Dextraze 17, Atwell 15, Fisher 9, Menius 8, Pharr 6.

 

 

 

 

 

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CHINA GROVE — Lake Norman Charter got 23 points and 11 steals from freshman Abby Courtney and pulled away from Carson’s girls basketball team on Friday.

A first quarter that ended with the Knights holding a shaky 4-2 lead over the Cougars offered hope for the home team, but LNC picked up the pace with a 15-point second quarter, led 19-4 at halftime and went on to win 46-24.

Carson  (1-19, 0-13) scored 20 in the second half, but it was too little, too late.

Lake Norman Charter (5-15, 3-10) had beaten Carson 39-25 in December and was able to finish the South Piedmont Conference sweep.

LNC’s Lucy Courtney also had a big night with nine rebounds and five assists.

Laila Furr tied her season high with seven points to lead the Cougars. Julia Burleson scored five.

LN Charter      4    15    10    17   — 46

Carson              2     2    11      9    — 24

LNC — A. Courtney 23, Mercuri 9, L. Courtney 6, Divyakola 4, Stafford 2.

CARSON — Furr 7, Burleson 5, Hedrick 4, McBride 4, Sheets 2, Baldwin 2.