By Marny Hendrick

sports@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — South Rowan’s first-year head coach, Alex Allen, has plenty of experience playing in the Dale’s/Sam Moir Christmas Classic back in her successful Carson days.

Now, she is trying to convey that winning mindset to her young Raiders’ team.

South fell to 0-2 in this year’s tournament Friday morning when AL Brown pulled away in the fourth period to take a 53-39 consolation-round win. The final score is deceiving as South trailed just 33-31, with 6:54 left to play — after a Bethany Rymer layup. But the Raiders did not score again until 3:35 remained and by then, the Wonders (3-7) had built a 13-point lead.

“We have had this happen to us in multiple games this season,” Allen said. “We would get off a good run and just kind of drop. It has been like a roller coaster. We are trying to get to the point where we put all four quarters together,”

The loss dropped South to 1-9, their 8th loss in a row. They now play this  morning at 9:00, in the 7th-place game against a winless Davie team (0-11), so the opportunity is there for the Raiders.

The biggest obstacle for South in the game was Brown’s talented 5-11 senior forward Jaliyah Simmons. The Raiders simply had no answer for her as she scored 20 points inside and grabbed 14 rebounds. “Simmons is a rock out there,” said first-year Brown head coach Mark Hogan. “She is really tough and can score from a lot of different spots and today she did just that.”

Guards Jala Campbell and Jaliah Smoutherson were also key for the Brown in the big fourth-quarter surge that produced 20 points. Campbell finished with 12 and Smoutherson added 11.

“We talked a lot about playing together as a team and everybody doing their job,” Hogan said. “I felt like we stepped up and did that today.”

Brown now plays in the noon 5th-place game Saturday, against North Rowan (7-3).

South’s scoring was topped by freshman forward Mackenzie Chabala with 11 points, followed by another freshman, Madilyn Cherry, with nine points and junior Paige Chabala, also with nine.

“We are still a work in progress,” said Allen. “We need scoring from as many people as possible and to get more people involved in our offense. We will get there.”

SOUTH ROWAN (39) — M. Chabala 11, Cherry 9, P. Chabala 9, Moore 4, Rymer 4, Redmon 1, McGuire 1.

A.L. BROWN (53) — J. Simmons 20, Campbell 12, Smoutherson 11, Moore 3, Yow 2, Brim 2, Grant 2,Green 1.

South Rowan     6     9   14    10 — 39

A.L. Brown       12   10   11    20 — 53