Staff report

TROUTMAN — East Rowan’s girls basketball team got a career-best 20 points from Sadie Featherstone and held on for a 51-48 win at South Iredell on Friday.

The non-conference game was notable as a coaching matchup of sisters — East’s Bri Johnson Evans and South Iredell’s Mariah Johnson.

South Iredell (2-7) is a 4A team that is better than its record looks. While East (6-2) won its fourth straight game, there was never a dull moment for the Mustangs. Mary Church didn’t get many shots as South Iredell made a determined effort to keep the ball out of her hands, but Featherstone came through with a forceful performance.

Kady Collins carried East in the early going, scoring seven of her nine points right out of the gate. East needed a 3-pointer from Izzy Stepp for a 14-13 lead after a quarter.

East was leading 16-15, when Featherstone, who hadn’t scored up to that point, had a personal 7-0 run that included two 3-pointers. She pushed East’s lead to 23-15. When Church scored on an offensive rebound, the Mustangs owned a 10-point lead. It would be their biggest of the night.

Savannah Wise made a 3-pointer that was helpful, but the Mustangs’ lead shrunk to 28-24 by halftime.

Then South Iredell scored the first five points of the second half to take the lead. Neither team led by more than four during the third quarter. Lily Kluttz made a driving shot for a 37-35 East lead, but there was another lead change when South Iredell made a 3-pointer at the end of the quarter.

Early in the fourth quarter, Church had back-to-back buckets to turn a 39-37 East deficit into a 41-39 lead.

Then Featherstone made the shot of the game, a 3-pointer that came from deep in the right corner. She was actually behind the backboard when she released it. That shot gave the Mustangs a five-point lead.

East was up eight with 2:15 left, but South Iredell still made it tense with two late 3-pointers.

The second of those 3-pointers with 24 seconds left cut East’s lead to 49-48.

There were frantic moments as the Mustangs tried to run out the clock. Evans called a timeout with five seconds left, and Church was able to inbound the ball from in front of the East bench to Featherstone. Featherstone was fouled with four seconds left and made two free throws for the final margin.

“Sadie had a great game,” Evans said. “Just thankful to be going into the Christmas break with a 6-2 record.”

East will be the No. 1 seed in the Sam Moir Christmas Classic and will play No. 8 seed West Rowan in the first round.

East     14   14    9   14   — 51

SI        13   11   14    10   — 48

EAST scoring — Featherstone 20, Collins 9, Church 8, Stepp 5, Kluttz 4, Wise 3, Smith 2.