Mustangs celebrate.

East senior Mary Church

 

 

By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — East Rowan’s girls basketball team, mostly seniors who have experienced a roller-coaster ride of wins, losses and emotions, are back on top of Rowan County basketball for the first time in 10 years.

The Mustangs, coached by former Catawba College star Bri Johnson Evans, beat Salisbury 55-38 in the championship game of the Sam Moir Christmas Classic played at Catawba on Saturday night.

“This team is just built different,” Evans said. “They are very tough mentally. They go hard. Everyone left everything they had on the floor.”

Top-seeded East (9-2) controlled the game almost from the outset — Salisbury’s last lead was 6-4 — and was never seriously threatened in the second half by the third-seeded Hornets (6-4). East won its seventh straight game.

“By the start of the third quarter, I think we knew we had it, we knew it was our night,” tournament MVP Mary Church said. “We were only up 11 at the half, and I know you can lose an 11-point lead, but we felt like we were in great position.”

Church was phenomenal, her adrenaline pumping even more than usual on the big stage, in front of a big crowd and on the big floor at Goodman Gym. She had one of the best games of her career with 26 points. She scored going right and she scored going left. She scored in the paint, she scored at the foul line and she scored from deep.

“Give a lot of  credit to Mary Church for what happened,” Salisbury coach Lakai Brice said. “She did what a senior needed to do. East has a senior dominant team. It showed.”

Two years ago when East’s current seniors were sophomores they took a frightful beating on the first day of the Moir tournament from North Rowan. The Mustangs got a hard lesson in speed and intensity. The final was 77-33.

On the second day of that tourney, East was in a dogfight with South Rowan and pulled out a 49-48 consolation bracket victory. Church, an AAU warrior who had transferred from Gray Stone Day to East for her sophomore year, was expected to shine for the Mustangs, but she was hobbling with severe pain in her knee. That Moir game would be her last outing of the season. The scary diagnosis was that her left kneecap was breaking apart. That explained the pain.

It was a long road back from surgery. Lots of ice packs, physical therapy, ibuprofen, sweat and tears, but Church was determined to come back not just as good as she had been — but better. She averaged 12.6 points and was East’s leading scorer as a junior. As a senior, she’s averaging 16.1 and looks like a steal for Division III Meredith College, where the new nursing program probably made the difference in her recruitment.

“It’s hard to put into words what I was feeling in this gym two years ago compared to what I’m feeling now,” Church said. “This feels great. This was a great team win tonight. Everyone did their part. We were really focused on the defensive end.”

East held all three tournament opponents under 40 points.

Senior Sadie Featherstone scored 14 for East and made all-tournament. Featherstone is a runner, a hurdler, a really good athlete. She made the 3-pointer that gave the Mustangs a 16-8 lead. Then she made an amazing, spinning shot as the first-quarter horn sounded to make it 18-10.

“Well, that wasn’t a shot I expected to go in,” Featherstone said with a smile. “The main thing was that we played with a family feeling tonight. If someone was struggling, there was always a teammate there to help them out.”

Featherstone averaged 1.5 points as a junior, so she’s taken a pretty incredible jump this season, She scored 20 in a recent game at South Iredell.

Also making all-tournament team from East was post player Isis Smith, who showed up bigger on the boards than she did in the scorebook. Smith got a lot of rebounds, as she compensated for the absence of Kady Collins, who had produced 25 points in East’s first two tournament games. Salisbury has good size, athletic size, but Smith won a lot of battles in the paint as the Mustangs built a lead.

“Kady just wasn’t feeling well,” Evans said. “But it was a big step-up night for Isis.”

East also got points from Savannah Wise, Kori Miller, Lily Kluttz and Aniyah Marshall. Everyone doing their part.

East led 30-19 at halftime.

A bucket by Torese Evans got Salisbury within eight points early in the second half, but the Hornets missed too many layups to make a serious run. They’d get a steal and miss the layup. They’d fight for a rebound and miss the layup. They’d beat a defender off the dribble and miss the layup.

“We can’t play any harder and I’m very proud of the progress our team has made this season,” Brice said. “We made East come out of their diamond press and I was glad to see that, but we’ve got to do a better job of making layups. We have to execute better on offense. We have to make more of the easy ones. We missed so many chip shots right under the basket.”

Church made a 3-pointer to push East’s lead to a dozen in the middle of the third, and East was up by a comfortable 14 heading to the fourth quarter.

As the final minutes melted away with no Salisbury comeback in sight, East fans celebrated. Then, finally, the Mustangs’ players and coaches celebrated with them.

“Coach Evans is doing a great job with that team,” Brice said. “She’s got the seniors and she knows how to use them.”

Salisbury didn’t have anyone in double figures. Jaliyah McNeely scored eight. Evans and Keaira Spruill scored seven each.

The Hornets had such a rough night offensively that freshman Gabbi Fatovic was all-tournament despite being shut out in the championship game. She was still the Hornets’ scoring leader for the event. Her 31 points helped beat North Rowan and Carson and got the Hornets to the final. Spruill, who had 28 points in the tournament, also got an all-tournament nod. McNeely received the RONZ Award, given in honor of the late Ronnie Gallagher, Post sports editor from 1997 to 2013,

“We’ll keep getting better,” Brice promised. “I can’t wait for the next practice.”

Salisbury      10   9    11   8   — 38

East              18  12    14  11    — 55

SALISBURY — McNeely 8, Spruill 7, Evans 7, Zapata 6, Fomond 6, Gaither 2, Myers 2.

EAST — Church 26, Featherstone 14, Miller 5, Wise 4, Smith 3, Marshall 2, Kluttz 1.