Staff report

WINSTON-SALEM — An era is about to end for West Rowan’s girls basketball.

Lauren Arnold, Emma Clarke, De’Mya Phifer, Mya Edwards and Makaylah Tenor, a quintet of seniors that has accounted for 5,133 points for the Falcons, will call it a career.

Whether they’ll go out with the euphoria of their second 3A state championship  — or a tear-stained loss — will be determined at 3:30 p.m. on Friday at Joel Coliseum.

Terry Sanford, a Fayetteville school, will provide the opposition for the Falcons (30-1), who are the first Rowan girls program to win 30 games in back-to-back seasons. West was 31-0 in 2022-23 under coach Ashley Poole.

West runs, passes and defends at a high level. If there’s a weakness, it’s long-range shooting. The Falcons can be either hot or cold in that aspect of the game. They made zero 3-pointers in the fourth round and they made only one in the regional final, but they still won challenging games against East Lincoln and A.C. Reynolds, the two best 3A teams they’ve faced this season.

West got to the rim often enough to shoot a respectable 43 percent against A.C. Reynolds in Tuesday’s regional final. A.C. Reynolds outscored the Falcons 15-3 from the 3-point line, but shot 39 percent.

West was tremendous from the free-throw line, 17-for-18, in the regional final, and also had the edge on the boards (37-29) and in the turnover battle (21-18).

Like West Rowan, Terry Sanford doesn’t have a huge scorer and accumulates points by committee. Breanna Roaf leads the Bulldogs with 13.8 points per game.

Terry Sanford’s 27-5 record is misleading as the Bulldogs haven’t lost to any 3As. They’ve lost to a 4A, two stacked private schools and two out-of-state schools.

Third-seeded Terry Sanford was a slight underdog but won against top-seeded South Central in the 3A East regional final, mostly by crushing South Central on the boards. Terry Sanford had 51 rebounds in the regional final, with 25— that’s an insane number — coming on the offensive end. Three Bulldogs collected double-figure rebounds, including 13 by the 5-foot-7 Roaf, 12 by 5-foot-7 Taleah Meadows and 10 by 6-foot-2 Rebecca Kaba.

So West will have to rebound aggressively, and hopefully will able to avoid foul trouble while doing it. Foul trouble limited West’s leading scorer Lauren Arnold to 18 minutes and eight points in the struggle with A.C. Reynolds. The Falcons probably will need her skills and leadership for 32 minutes on Friday.

Tiara Thompson, a sophomore guard, led West with 17 points in the regional final, including 9-for-10 at the foul line. Clarke, a 6-foot-1 Tennessee softball signee, scored 14 points, led West’s rebounding with seven and blocked two shots. West also got a stout game from Edwards, who is deadly on 10-foot jumpers. She shot 6-for-10 for her 12 points.