Staff report

SALISBURY — Salisbury’s girls basketball team is expected to have a challenging third-round game today in the 2A state playoffs.

High Point’s T.W. Andrews will provide the opposition, with a 2 p.m. tipoff. The Hornets are seeded third, while T.W. Andrews is seeded sixth.

The winner of this game will play the winner of the game between No. 2 Shelby and No. 10 Monroe, so even if Salisbury wins today it may be the last game in the Salisbury gym for seniors Kyla Bryant and Mary Morgan, who have been four-year starters, and for seniors Icesis Nwafor and Haley Dalton, who have been an important part of the program for three seasons.

Salisbury won with defense in Thursday’s second round when it beat Forbush 47-36.

Three SHS starters combined for only four points, but they got the job done on the defensive end, while MaKayla Noble (21 points) and Bryant (17) handled the scoring. Bryant had four assists and no turnovers. Noble also had four assists.

Morgan contributed nine rebounds. Haley Dalton had foul trouble and was limited to one blocked shot. Nwafor made an early 3 for her only bucket.

Shamya Arnold had five points off the bench when the game could have gone either way. She scored Salisbury’s only three points of the second quarter. The Hornets jumped out 11-0 against 14th-seeded Forbush (19-9), but led by only 16-13 at halftime

Today’s game figures to be a monumental defensive struggle, as Andrews is about as defensive-minded a team as you’ll ever find.

Andrews doesn’t have a big scorer. Eight girls combine to get the Red Raiders about 50 points per game. What makes them really good is they only allow about 30 points per game.

Andrews had a frosty shooting start and got behind North Wilkes 12-0 at the start of their second-round game in High Point, but was able to come back. Andrews completely shut down North Wilkes in the second half, allowing just eight points after the break. Senai Johnson and Jurnee Flowers led Andrews with 12 points each.

Andrews finished ninth in the 2A West RPI rankings but moved up to a six seed as a conference champion. Andrews ran the table in its league, as did Salisbury.

Salisbury (23-3) has won 12 in a row, while Andrews (22-4) has won five in a row.

Andrews has only lost one game to an NCHSAA school all season. That was an overtime setback against Ben L. Smith.

 

Forbush    3     10    9    14   — 36

Salisbury  13    3     17   14   — 47

Salisbury — Noble 21, Bryant 17, Arnold 5, Nwafor 3, Dalton 1.