Staff report

LANDIS — South Rowan’s girls basketball team finished the game with a 13-0 run and beat Carson 40-31 on Thursday in an exciting South Piedmont Conference contest.

Kynlee Dextraze led South with 10 points, with eight coming on free throws. McKenzie Menius made three 3-pointers. Her third one was the biggest shot of the game as it triggered that closing burst by the Raiders (5-8, 2-5). Ella Morgan scored eight.

Allie Martin scored 15 for the Cougars (3-12, 1-6).

South took an 8-2 lead early and led 8-5 after a quarter. Martin’s big second quarter kept Carson in the game. South took a 17-14 lead to halftime.

A spinning three-point play by Martin gave Carson a 21-20 lead late in the third quarter, and she stuck back an offensive board to put the Cougars ahead 23-20.

Carson led 23-22 going to the final eight minutes.

Carson went ahead 31-27 for its biggest lead on buckets by Rylee Hedrick and Julia Burleson. Burleson got a fast-break layup with a little over four minutes left. but those would be the last points the Cougars would score. They were playing their third game in three nights, and they may have run out of gas at the end. South was playing its first game this week and had fresher legs in the final minutes.

Menius made the huge shot, a 3-pointer from the right side, that stopped Carson’s surge and got South within one point. Moments later, Day Pharr’s driving layup gave South a one-point lead. Then Ella Morgan hit a big 3, from almost straight on, and South was suddenly up by four and had all the momentum.

Carson’s Miley Benfield got clobbered in the neck and head area, but didn’t get a call on Carson’s next possession. She reacted and was hit with a technical. Dextraze made the technical free throws to put South up six, and there was no longer any doubt that the Raiders would win.

Carson     5    9    9    8    — 31

South       8    9   5    18    — 40

Carson — Martin 15, Burleson 6, Hedrick 4, Benfield 2, Sheets 2, McBide 2.

South — Dextraze 10, Menius 9, Morgan 8, Pharr 6, Fisher 4, Krieg 3.