By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
GRANITE QUARRY ó East Rowan girls coach Karen Garmon traded her contacts for eyeglasses, but she never had to make a spectacle of herself.
“Hey, this is my tournament look, makes me look smart,” Garmon said with a laugh. “Whatever it takes.”
With a new-look coach, East cruised past West Iredell 63-43 in an NPC tournament quarterfinal. Tuesday’s tensionless tussle was over faster than you can say “Katelynne Poole.”
Poole scored 19 points, Mackenzie Holshouser contributed 10, and all nine of their teammates got in the scorebook.
Poole, a senior guard headed to Brevard, drilled four field goals in the first quarter, while West Iredell was making two. The Mustangs (17-7) led 18-4 after eight minutes and 31-11 at halftime.
East packed in its defense, dared the sixth-seeded Warriors to fire away from downtown and grabbed most of the rebounds.
“We packed it back to take away the big girl (Kaylyn Chapman) because she’s their best player and the one we thought might hurt us,” Garmon said. “We did a good job of doing that.”
Chapman, who has posted several double-doubles this season, had one point at halftime.
“We just couldn’t make any shots in the first half,” West Iredell coach Phil Fox said. “When we’ve won games it’s been by pushing the ball and being very aggressive, and we didn’t do that at all.”
The Warriors, who are playoff-bound, shot 5-for-25 in the first half, while making 11 turnovers. That wasn’t going to get it done in Granite Quarry.
“We just didn’t play well,” Fox said. “Against the good teams you can’t afford to do that.”
One thing about East, it takes care of business against the people it’s supposed to beat. Counting a Moir win against South Rowan, East is 16-0 against NPC teams who finished below the Mustangs in the standings.
“We came out and did what we needed to do,” said East reserve Olivia Sabo, who had six points and seven rebounds. “We were all excited about the chance to play Lake Norman again, but we stayed focused on this game and kept talking.”
East was romping 49-14 and looked as if it might win by 50, but West Iredell reeled off 13 straight points against East’s reserves late in the third quarter.
“We just didn’t have a natural point guard with that group, but once we put Ashley (Collins) or Alaina (Vanderford) out there with them, they calmed down and did fine,” Garmon said. “It’s always great for morale when everyone plays and everyone scores.”
Collins had a quiet night, saving her energy for Lake Norman. She took only two shots in the first three quarters and got her four points in the fourth.
Sophomore Olivia Rankin, who has the same initials as Offensive Rebound, pulled down more than a few of them.
Poole would have had three more points if she’d shot from two inches further out. On three occasions, she had toes on the 3-point line.
Poole also had 10 rebounds, which caused almost as much conversation as Garmon’s glasses. It had to be a career high.
“Garmon told me the ball must have fallen into my hands 10 times,” Poole said with a smile. “Garmon is still Garmon. Even with the glasses.”
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NOTES: It was the last game in the East gym for Collins (1,134) and Poole (1,061), the No. 5 and No. 6 scorers in East history ó unless East wins the tournament. … As good a season as it’s had, East hasn’t beaten an elite team yet. It’s 0-6 against Statesville (21-3), Lake Norman (20-4) and Salisbury (22-2). East’s other loss was to North Davidson, runner-up in the 4A CPC. … East beat Lake Norman three times last season including a Haley Miller-fueled tournament blowout ó but the Wildcats beat the Mustangs 49-47 at East and smacked them 59-42 at Lake Norman this season. The rivalry resumes Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in a semifinal at West Iredell. “For whatever reason, our two worst games all year have been against Lake Norman,” Garmon said. “We haven’t shown up. But I feel like we’ll be ready to play some tournament basketball Thursday.”
west iredell (43) ó Frye 11, Watts 10, Walden 9, Chapman 6, Cooper 3, Renwick 2, Keever 2, Johnson, Sigmon, Tuttle.
east rowan (63) ó Poole 19, Holshouser 10, Rankin 7, Sabo 6, Vanderford 5, Collins 4, Drew 3, Honeycutt 3, File 2, Corpening 2, Means 2
W. Iredell 4 7 16 16 ó 43
E. Rowan 18 13 18 14 ó 63