From staff reports

GRANITE QUARRY — East Rowan’s boys basketball season ended quietly on Friday with a 79-47 home loss to West Rowan.

Only the top six teams make the tournament in the eight-team South Piedmont Conference. East tied for sixth with Carson and the teams split SPC meetings, but Carson’s win against East in the Christmas tournament will be used as the tiebreaker.

West was coming off a brutal loss at Concord, so there was a general feeling that East had a chance, but the Falcons, minus leading scorer Athan Gill, went back to work with a purpose and wiped out the Mustangs.

The key man for West (15-8, 10-4) was point guard Kayvone Norman, who scored a career-high 22 points.

Norman has been at his best in games against county opponents. He’s scored 20 and 17 against Carson and 19 against North Rowan.

“Norman drove to the basket and he got rebounds,” East coach Andrew Porter said. “He was tough. He controlled every part of the game with his defense. He set up their offense and scored the basketball. We did a good job to hold down Will Givens and Elijah Holmes, but Norman killed us.”

Givens scored 12 for the Falcons. Brant Graham had 11, and Holmes scored 10.

East (6-16, 3-10) got 14 from Tee Harris and 11 from Dylan Valley, but those are pretty quiet nights for those two.

East started out decently, but West was up 17-11 after a quarter and by 35-23 at halftime.

“Then we couldn’t get a rebound or make a shot in the second half,” Porter said. “And we couldn’t stop their guards from penetrating. Our help defense was late, and that hurt us.”

While the Mustangs are done, West moves on to the SPC tourney.

West finished in third place and will be at home on Monday against sixth-seeded Carson. West has beaten Carson three times — 68-61 in the Christmas tourney championship game and 64-62 and 72-60 in SPC contests.

West Rowan     17   18  17   27   — 79

East Rowan     11    12   13  11    — 47

West — Norman 22, Givens 12, Graham 11, Holmes 10, Stockton 6, Martin 5, Stevenson 5, Little 4, Ford 2, Young 2.

East — Harris 14, Valley 11, Everhart 6, Sprinkle 6, Wembolua 4, Chesney 2, Ailshie 2, Jones 2.

•••

GRANITE QUARRY — West Rowan’s girls wrapped up an undefeated regular season with 69-9 romp against East Rowan on Friday.

West led 42-9 at the break, and the Mustangs didn’t score in the second half.

“We played well,” West coach Ashley Poole said. “Great defense.”

Lauren Arnold and De’Mya Phifer combined for 14 points in the first quarter as the Falcons (23-0, 14-0) got off to a fast start.

Arnold,  a junior, scored 17, boosting her career total to 931. Phifer had 16, and Tiara Thompson scored 13 to lead the onslaught.

Hannah Waddell scored six for the Mustangs (11-12, 7-7).

East finished fifth and will play a first-round SPC tourney game against fourth-seeded Lake Norman Charter on Monday.

West will be in action in the tournament semifinals on Tuesday.

West     22    20    15    12    — 69

East        5       4      0     0    — 9

West — Arnold 17, Phifer 16, Thompson 13, Clarke 8, Tenor 6, Cuthbertson 5, Huntley 4.

East — Waddell 6, Collins 2, L. Kluttz 1.

•••

LANDIS — South Rowan’s Madilyn Cherry and Carson’s Allie Martin set new career highs on Friday.

Cherry’s 28-point explosion helped the Raider girls off-set a colossal, 32-point, 16-rebound by effort by Martin. The Raiders won 59-51, with both teams displaying some of their best offensive production of the season on South’s Senior Night.

Carson had the ball, down three, with about 30 seconds left, but turned it over.

“Allie had a monster game, and can’t fault the effort from anyone,” Carson coach Brooke Stouder said. “The girls played really hard. We cut our turnovers down to 15, and that was a goal. We allowed only three offensive rebounds.”

South led 15-10 after a quarter. Cherry scored 10 in the second quarter, as the Raiders took a 31-26 halftime lead.

Carson went in front 42-40 after three quarters, but South finished stronger. Martin was the only Cougar to score in the fourth quarter.

“We played a great third quarter and had a lot of opportunities in the fourth,” Stouder said. “Emma Carpenter (8 points, 7 rebounds) did a great job battling against Kynlee Dextraze.”

Laila Furr scored eight for Carson.

South got to the foul line more than the Cougars and went 12-for-19 on free throws.

Besides Cherry’s huge game, South got a lot of points from Hannah Atwell (10), Ari Alston (9) and Dextraze (8). Senior Eden Childers made a 3-pointer.

“We gave up too many second-chance points, but overall it was a good Senior Night win for us and we got to celebrate two key pieces (Cherry and Childers) of our program,” South coach Alex Allen said.

Only the top six teams get into the South Piedmont Conference Tournament. Carson (3-21, 2-10), despite the improvement it showed on Friday, finished seventh and ended its season.

South (8-15, 5-9) finished sixth and gets to play on. The Raiders will be at Central Cabarrus on Monday.

Carson     10    16   16   9   — 51

South       15    16     9    18  — 58

Carson — Martin 32, Carpenter 8, Furr 8, McBride 3.

South — Cherry 28, Atwell 10, Alston 9, Dextraze 8, Childers 3.

•••

LANDIS — Carson rained 3-pointers, like old times, and beat South Rowan 68-39 on Friday in South Piedmont Conference action.

Only the top six teams make the South Piedmont Conference Tournament. South (1-22, 0-14) wrapped up the season.

With the win, Carson (10-13, 3-11) tied East Rowan for sixth and will be the No. 6 seed in the tournament by virtue of a tie-breaking Christmas tourney win against the Mustangs. The teams split their SPC meetings.

Jonah Drye made four 3-pointers and scored 19 for the Cougars. Colin Ball scored 14, with three 3-pointers. Mikey Beasley made three 3s and scored 13.

South hung in the game for a half and was down 30-21 at the half, but Carson had a 19-3 edge in the third quarter to put the Raiders away.

The top scorers for the Raiders were Aaron Jones (12), Zion Jackson (10) and Carsten Carey (9).

“We really had an overall good effort, we just missed a ton of open shots at the start of the second half,” South coach Daniel Blevins said.

Carson will play at third-seeded West Rowan on Monday in the first round of the tournament.

Carson    18   12    19   19   — 68

South      11   10      3   15   — 39

Carson — Drye 19, Ball 14, Beasley 13, Burleyson 5, Taylor 5, Guida 5, Howard 4, McGruder 2, Caldwell 1.

South — Jones 12, Jackson 10, Carey 9, McGuire 5, Blackwell 3.