By Bill Kiser
Salisbury Post
CONCORD ó On paper, the West Rowan girls basketball team shouldn’t have been close in its 3A playoff game against Concord.
Funny thing about the state playoffs, though ó weird things happen.
The Falcons gave the Spiders all they could handle in Monday night’s playoff opener before falling 90-80.
Jhemelia Edwards scored 23 points to lead four players in double figures for Concord (26-2). Nyshia Hammonds added 18 points, T.T. Belcher 17 and Jatzmin Johnson 15 for the Spiders, who will play East Rowan ó a 59-40 winner against Hickory St. Stephens ó in a second-round game Wednesday night.
Behind a season-high 35 points from freshman Ayana Avery and three other players in double figures, fifth-seeded West Rowan (13-11) repeatedly rallied from double-digit deficits to make a game of it against the top-seeded Spiders.
Peyton Sawyer added 19 points, Brooke Taylor 12 and Katie Cox 10 for the Falcons.
“They’ve got a good team, but we just played well offensively,” West coach Erich Epps said. “And Ayana … she certainly should get some attention after this game, against this team.”
Concord opened the game with a 10-0 run, were up by 13 points midway through the second quarter, led by as many as 16 points late in the third quarter, and were up 73-59 with five minutes remaining in the fourth.
But each time, the Falcons fought back.
West pulled within 15-13 with less than two minutes to go in the first quarter before going down 21-14, cut that 13-point margin down to five with nine seconds left in the second before going out down 46-38 at the break, and only trailed by nine points entering the fourth quarter.
“They were well-coached … and we came out a little flat-footed,” Spiders head coach Angela Morton said. “They came in well prepared, and this shows that we’ve got to get better.”
It helped that Concord ó aided by Avery, Sawyer and Taylor frequently driving to the basket ó got into foul trouble in the first half. Belcher picked up three fouls and sat out the final four minutes of the half, and six others had two fouls each.
“We knew they were going to press us, but we’re pretty good at breaking pressure and getting easy points,” Epps said.
And the last time ó Avery nailed an under-pressure 3-pointer from the corner with 33 seconds left to cap a 21-11 run and cut Concord’s lead to 84-80.
But the Falcons were forced into fouling, and Edwards put the game away for the Spiders by hitting six straight from the free throw line in the final 28 seconds.
“I told the girls ‘Concord’s ranked second in the state, so let them know you came to play tonight,’ ” Epps said. “We didn’t do that against Statesville (in the NPC tournament finals), but we did tonight.
“I’m proud of the way my girls played tonight. We could’ve folded it up but we didn’t. We came back and fought the whole game. A missed free throw here and there, just anything good happening, and we might’ve come out of here with a big upset.”
WEST rowan (80) ó Avery 35, Sawyer 19, Taylor 12, Cox 10, Sherrill 2, Izze 1, Calloway 1, Simmons, Cuthbertson, Dutton, Moose.
CONCORD (90) ó Edwards 23, Hammonds 18, Belcher 17, Johnson 15, Deberry 7, Black 5, Currie 3, Gillis 2, Shue.
W. Rowan 14 24 15 27 ó 80
Concord 21 25 16 28 ó 90
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Contact Bill Kiser at sports@salisburypost.com.