Staff report

SALISBURY — Salisbury’s girls basketball team got its first victory of the season on Thursday.

Salisbury started strong and finished strong and beat the Hopewell Titans 52-46 in an exciting non-conference game.

A fast start was key for the Hornets (1-2), as they jumped out to a 17-5 lead after a quarter.

Hopewell, a 4A school in Huntersville, started to settle in and outscored the Hornets to close the gap to 27-20 at the half.

Hopewell (1-4) continued it comeback in the third quarter and made it a single-possession game, but after struggling to score throughout the third quarter, the Hornets put up 18 points in the fourth to hold on to the 210th win for coach Lakai Brice at Salisbury.

Torese Evans got to the rim with drives and scored a career-high 18 points for the Hornets. Evans averaged 5.4 points per game last season. Her previous career high was 12.

Mariana Zapata made 3-pointers for the Hornets and scored 12, one short of her career high.

Five more girls scored for the Hornets, who made more layups and improved their offensive production. Salisbury scored 38 and 31 in losing its first two games.

Hopewell    5    15    11    15    — 46

Salisbury     17  10   7      18   — 52

SALISBURY scoring — Evans 18, Zapata 12, Spruill 8, McNeely 6, Fatovic 3, Myers 3, Fomond 2.