MT. ULLA — Cassidy Chipman poured in 30 points for South Rowan on Tuesday, but she wasn’t the Raider who had a career high in a 71-63 SPC win at West Rowan.
The career-best effort belonged to Beth Ann Martin, who had 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting. Martin, known mostly for defense, had scored just five points in South’s previous three games and she averaged 2.8 per game last season.
Injured South player Caroline Hubbard had told Martin to get 10 points for her, and Martin had sort of giggled about it.
“I told her, “Oh, yeah, Caroline, I got it,’” Martin said. “But things just worked out tonight. We played together so well, and my teammates kept getting me the ball in my favorite spot to shoot.”
The West scouting report probably said to worry about Chipman and Avery Locklear and let Martin shoot, but it was her night.
“B.A. has worked a lot on her release and her shooting,” Chipman said. “She made her shots, and those were huge points for us.”
Chipman scored 33 in a game against West Davidson last season. At 5-foot-10, she can shoot 3s or post up, and her all-round game has vastly improved. She was a tiger on defense and she was relentless on the boards against the Falcons.
“We were all about scoring last year, but now we’re focused on rebounding and defense,” Chipman said. “The 30 points is great, but I had 17 rebounds, and I’m a lot more excited about that.”
Locklear added 16 points for the Raiders, who are 4-0 for the first time since the early days of the 1998-99 season. South is 2-0 in the SPC.
“We’ve stil got a lot of work to do,” South coach Jarrod Smith said. “But 4-0 feels pretty nice.”
West got 19 points from Khaila Hall, 12 from Taylor Martin, 10 from Quanice Miller and nine from Shanice Miller.
South had won only one of its previous 11 against West, so it was an important win for the Raiders, especially to prevail in Mount Ulla.
South got early buckets from Martin, Chipman, Locklear and Lynsey Corriher and never trailed.
Hall had 15 of her points before halftime, but the Falcons still trailed 38-29 at the break.
“Turnovers killed us,” West coach Ashley Poole said. “We had 19 of them.”
Chipman’s stickback after a South flurry on the boards — Chipman missed, Locklear kept the ball alive, and then Chipman scored — gave South a 45-34 lead with 4:28 to go in the third quarter.
When Chipman powered in a three-point play with 1:40 left in the quarter, the Raiders lead peaked at 19 points.
“I have to thank my weightlifting class for that one,” Chipman said.
South looked like it would win in a breeze, but the Falcons weren’t done. South got a little sloppy, and West (2-4, 1-1) put together a strong run in the fourth quarter.
West got as close as 62-55 with 3:34 remaining, but South guard Sylvetta Bost dropped in a couple of rainbows and the Raiders held on.
“The heart and the teamwork were definitely there for us tonight and we made some baby steps forward even though we lost,” Poole said. “We played hard and we played together and we made a run at it. We did a good job against Locklear. We just didn’t do a good job against some of the other girls.”
Smith was happy with the victory but not with that frenzied fourth quarter.
“We were a good team for three quarters,” he said. “But we’ve got to learn that a good team finishes off games.”

SOUTH (71) — Chipman 30, Locklear 16, Martin 10, Corriher 6, Bost 4, Figueroa 2, McLendon 2, Stamey 1, Waters.
WEST (63) — Hall 19, Martin 12, Q. Miller 10, S. Miller 9, Cowan 5, Allesandrini 3, Greene 3, Yow 2, Lovell, Edwards.

South 19 19 18 15 — 71
West 15 14 12 22 — 63