From staff reports

GRANITE QUARRY — Lake Norman Charter’s girls basketball team had East Rowan well-scouted and employed a triangle-and-two defense against the Mustangs on Tuesday.

LNC focused its defense on stopping Mary Church and Hannah Waddell, but Church scored 18 and Waddell had eight in the Mustangs’ 49-45 victory. It was a must-win at home for the Mustangs as far as remaining relevant in the South Piedmont Conference. East (8-8, 4-5) finished a season sweep of the Knights (4-13, 2-8).

Kady Collins scored seven for East, while Izzy Stepp had six.

“We played hard and we were able to pull it out,” East coach Bri Evans said.

LN Charter     14   11  10   10   — 45

East                  9     14  17     9    — 49

LNC — A. Courtney 16, Mercuri 10, Genece 8, L. Courtney 8, Krombolz 2, Keck 1.

EAST — Church 18, Waddell 8, Collins 7, Stepp 6, Wise 5, Miller 4, Smith 1.

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LANDIS — Central Cabarrus’ girls basketball team isn’t always a smooth operation, but the aggressive Vikings seem to win every game they should win, and they’re probably going to finish fourth in the nine-team South Piedmont Conference.

South Rowan had a legitimate chance to upset the Vikings on Tuesday, but Central pulled away to win 68-48.

While it doesn’t sound all that close, when Central went nearly four minutes without scoring to start the second quarter, the Raiders, who were down 20-12 after the first quarter, had their chance. South got as close as 20-17 when Hannah Atwell banked in a 3-pointer, but that was a wakeup call for Central (11-7, 7-3), which finished the half strong to lead 28-18.

South (3-13, 1-9) made another mini-run early in the third quarter, getting back to a 28-23 deficit on a three-point play by Ari Alston, but Central senior Kyra Lewis answered with a personal 8-0 run.

South still wasn’t done and made it a nine-point game early in the fourth quarter, but the Vikings, who got 23 points from Lewis and 16 from Jahnae Duncan, were able to turn it on one more time and finished off the Raiders.

Kynlee Dextraze scored 10 for South. Alston and Danica Krieg, who scored South’s first six points, had eight each.

Central    20    8    20   20   — 68

South      12     6     14     16   — 48

SOUTH — Dextraze 10, Alston 8, Krieg 8, Pharr 6, Morgan 5, Eagle 4, Atwell 3, Menius 2, Fisher 2.

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CONCORD — Even with 6-foot-4 Ohio State recruit Ella Hobbs sidelined by a knee injury, Robinson has a formidable girls basketball team.

Sophomore Camri Hobbs has been even more sensational than usual since her older sister was lost for the season and poured in 32 points to lead Tuesday’s 57-21 South Piedmont Conference win against Carson. LiAra Batts added 18 points for the Bulldogs (11-3, 7-1).

Carson hung in the game for a quarter and was down 18-11, but Hobbs and Batts led a second-quarter blowout by the Bulldogs.

The Cougars (1-15, 0-9) got eight points from Brooklyn McBride and seven from Rylee Hedrick.

Carson         11    2    2    6    — 21

Robinson    18   21   12   6    — 57

CARSON — McBride 8, Hedrick 7, Carpenter 4, Furr 2.

ROBINSON — Hobbs 32, Batts 18, Young 3, Hawkins 2, Christopher 2.

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CONCORD — In a game played on Monday, A.L. Brown (10-7, 1-5) lost to West Cabarrus 66-52 in Greater Metro Conference action.

Sadie Faulkner scored 18 for the Wonders. Ayanni Flood had 11, R’mani Bradley had nine, and Trinity Robinson scored seven.

Myla McNeely made her first start and did well.