Staff report

LANDIS — South Rowan senior Bethany Rymer surpassed 1,000 career points on Tuesday and her milestone night included an amazing shot from near midcourt to send the game to overtime.

Rymer got the five points she needed for 1,000 quickly, in the first quarter, and finished with 26.

But East Rowan’s girls basketball team won 64-59 in a pretty astounding upset.

The Mustangs hadn’t won since December. East (5-14, 2-10) had lost 10 in a row.

“Tough loss for us, on Senior Night and on a night when Bethany gets her 1,000th-point and makes a crazy buzzer-beater,” South coach Alex Allen said. “We made a lot of shots, but we also missed layups and we weren’t consistent enough with our passing and rebounding.”

East isn’t expected to play past Friday, as next week’s South Piedmont Conference Tournament will be a six-team affair, and the Mustangs are locked into seventh place.

“We talked about just going out and playing as hard as we could tonight,” East’s first-year head coach Bri Evans said. “That’s all we could do. That’s all that we could control.”

East sophomore Hannah Waddell, who is Rymer’s first cousin, gave the Mustangs confidence. She came out on fire, with four 3-pointers in the first quarter. She carried East to an 18-17 lead.

“She was raining 3s from all over the place,” Evans said.

Both teams tightened up their defense in the second quarter. The Raiders quieted Waddell and took a 24-22 lead to halftime.

But the Mustangs owned the third quarter. Madie Honeycutt and Peyton Whicker had two buckets each in the quarter, and Waddell made another 3-pointer. East took a 37-30 lead to the fourth quarter.

“Peyton Whicker made some big shots,” Evans said. “We haven’t been scoring a lot, but we’ve been working hard on our shooting.”

South (10-11, 6-7) has put up some big fourth quarters this season and did it again. The Raiders came back. Rymer sent it to overtime with her long buzzer-beater for 53-all.

East had to recover from that amazing shot — and did. Waddell’s seventh 3 of the night splashed in the overtime period. Honeycutt, Mac Misenheimer and Whicker made clutch free throws.

The 64 points were a season high for the Mustangs.

“It took a total team effort to win a game like this,” Evans said. “We played better than we have been playing on offense and defense. Everyone who went in there did what they were supposed to do.”

Waddell scored 26, the second-biggest game of her career. Whicker’s 13 was a career high.

Besides Rymer’s usual production, South got two 3-pointers and 10 points from Hannah Atwell, nine points from Madilyn Cherry and eight from Kynlee Dextraze.

“We look so good at times, but we’re not consistent,” Allen said. “Tough night. Emotional night.”

East    18    4    15    16   11   — 64

South  17   7     6     23    6   — 59

EAST — Waddell 26, Whicker 13, Misenheimer 9, Honeycutt 8, Boardley 4, Collins 4.

SOUTH — Rymer 26, Atwell 10, Cherry 9, Dextraze 8, Chabala 6.