Friday’s basketball roundup

Salisbury girls

THOMASVILLE — Salisbury’s deep girls opened with a strong 71-42 Central Carolina Conference win at Thomasville on Friday.

Wingate signee Bryanna Troutman had 11 points and 10 rebounds for coach Lakai Brice’s Hornets. Anayia Fulson had 10 points, five rebounds, five steals and three assists.

Troutman was first team all-county last season, while Fulson was second team.

Jalieah Gibson had nine points and eight rebounds. Jenesha Mashore had eight rebounds. Freshman Rachel McCullough had seven points and three assists. Chantal Robinson scored six in her first game for the Hornets. She’s a transfer from West Rowan.

Jakiya Brown had seven points, seven steals and five rebounds.

All 13 healthy Hornets scored. Tacorra Robinson, another returning starter, missed the game with illness.

SALISBURY (71) — Troutman 11, Fulson 10, Gibson 9, McCullough 7, Brown 7, Robinson 6, Horton 5, Oats 4, Mashore 4, Evans 2, Harrell 2, McEntyre 2, Glenn 2.

Salisbury         23   15    18   15   — 71

Thomasville    9      13     7    13  — 42

 

South Rowan girls

LANDIS — The first victory for new South Rowan girls basketball coach Stacy Ellis is one he’ll remember.

South opened Central Carolina Conference play with a 57-56 victory against East Davidson, always one of the league’s top teams.

“We were down most of the way, but we kept fighting,” Ellis said. “It was a really good game. I’m so happy the girls did what we needed to do to pull it out.”

South (1-1, 1-0) got 21 points from senior Janiya Downs, 18 from freshman Bethany Rymer and 10 from sophomore Carlie Moore.

Rymer made the first of two free throws in the final seconds for the deciding point. She missed her second free throw, but Downs grabbed the rebound.

Rymer, who had an outstanding cross country season in the fall, didn’t score in South’s opener, but she had a major impact in her second contest.

“She’s a good player and she can handle the ball,” Ellis said. “The thing for her is to just go out and play and not over-think. Tonight she just played. She let the game come to her.”

East Davidson (2-1, 0-1) got several first-half 3-pointers from veterans Bailey Grimsley and Skylar Grubb and took a 30-24 halftime lead.

“We adjusted in the second half,” Ellis said. “We were more aggressive defensively and didn’t let them get their feet set.”

The Golden Eagles took a 43-38 lead to the fourth quarter, but Downs and Rymer combined for 17 points in the final eight minutes. Moore had a big bucket in the fourth quarter.

 

SOUTH (57) — Downs 21, Rymer 18, Moore 10, McGuire 4, A. Chabala 2, P. Chabala 2, Harper, Littlejohn, Shell.

E. Davidson     14   16   13   13   — 56

South                11   13    14   19 — 57

 

 

North Rowan girls

CHINA GROVE — Lamar Wilkerson’s coaching debut was a success.

The Cavaliers opened with a 41-20 win against North Hills Christian in a game played at Carson on Friday evening.

“The girls were very nervous, a lot of first-game jitters,” Wilkerson said. “But we settled down. We made a lot of mistakes, but we played with energy, and that was great to see.”

Freshman Hannah Freeman made a lot of driving buckets and scored 20 points to lead the Cavaliers.

A couple of sophomores who were good varsity players last season, Natavia Taborn (12) and Makiya McDaniel (7), also scored consistently for the Cavaliers.

Aubree Cain, one of North’s three seniors, scored two points. Mckenzie Shoaf and Taren Sherrill didn’t score, but played well.

“We’ve got a lot of young girls, a lot of freshmen, so it wasn’t too bad for our first game,” Wilkerson said.

North Rowan was 7-17 last season and 6-10 in the 1A Yadkin Valley Conference.

 

Carson girls

CHINA GROVE — Carson’s girls moved to 4-0 with an easy 67-29 home win against Northwest Cabarrus on Friday.

Colbie Perry made four 3-pointers for the Cougars and scored 14. McKenzie Gadson had 10 points and six rebounds. Carleigh Perry had 10 points and seven rebounds and took two charges.

Carleigh Perry missed almost all of her freshman season after ACL surgery.

“She’s tough, she crashes the boards and she’s a good defender,” Carson head coach Brooke Stouder said. “She did a good job tonight of helping to set up our shooters.”

Victoria Post went 3-for-3 on 3-pointers and scored nine points.

Carson got off to a fast start and led 18-4 after a quarter and by 37-11 at halftime against the Trojans (0-3).

“Our balanced scoring was good again,” Stouder said. “We’re off to a good start, but it’s early and we’ve got a lot of improving to do.”

Aliciah Fields led the Trojans with eight points. NW Cabarrus plays North Rowan at Carson today at 1 p.m.

 

NW CABARRUS (29) — Fields 8, Gordan 6, Jackson 4, Walker 3, Sterling 2, York 2, Maddox 2, Robinson 2.

CARSON (67) — Co. Perry 14, Ca. Perry 10, Gadson 10, Post 9, Cooper 8, Isley 6, Wilhelm 6, Conrad 4, Hales, Gamewell.

NWC        4      7     3     15    — 29

Carson     18   19   10   20   — 67

 

East Rowan girls

CONCORD — A slow start doomed East Rowan’s girls at Central Cabarrus on Friday.

East trailed, 12-3, after a quarter, was down 21-3 in the second quarter before settling down and was well on its way to a 50-34 loss to the Vikings.

“We started out tight, missed a couple of layups and their pressure got to us a little bit,” East head coach Kevin Holland said. “We turned it over, we missed some shots that we’ve been making, and we dug a pretty deep hole. Central was really good in the first half.”

Jael Miller scored 25 for coach Brandon Blalock’s Central squad (1-1), and Aniyah Tate added 16.

It was the first loss for the  Mustangs (3-1), who got 15 points from Grace Eagle and 10 from Adalie Harrison.

East played well in the third quarter and got back as close as 11 points.

“If we’d played the first half the way we did the second, it would’ve been a good game,” Holland said, “We just never could get it back to single digits to really feel like we were in it. Harrison and Zee (Winford) played really tough, and Eagle was strong again.”