By Paul Hershey
phershey@salisburypost.com
CHINA GROVE ó Despite a layoff between games of more than two weeks, Carson girls coach Brooke Misenheimer wasn’t particularly concerned about how her team would play Friday night.
“I was more anxious about what practice was going to be like on Monday,” Misenheimer said. “We’ve had some good days of practice and we’ve worked hard and felt like we got our legs back underneath us.”
No one will argue after seeing how sharp the Cougars were early in their 57-24 rout of Statesville.
Carson (11-4, 5-1) made six of its first seven shots and hit four 3-pointers in the opening quarter to lead 20-2 and turn another contest between the Cougars and Statesville into a lopsided affair.
Up until this season, Carson was on the losing end of those. Now it’s the Greyhounds turn.
“(The girls) like being in that position rather than being on the opposite end,” Misenheimer said. “Those things, from what I’ve seen, come in waves at every school.”
This romp started with simple driving layups by Allison Blackwell and Tyesha Phillips and a jumper by Sarrah Holman. The Cougars then took it further outside, with Chloe Monroe hitting back-to-back 3-pointers, followed by one each from Michaela White and Blackwell to cap off the quarter.
Carson ended up with 10-pointers in the game. Monroe hit five of them for 15 points. Phillips added 11 points, while Holman, Blackwell and White each scored nine in the win.
“We jumped out to a good start the first quarter, which is always nice,” Misenheimer said. “It always helps us when we’re hitting our shots too. But it was a nice team win. Everybody got to play and everybody got to contribute and that’s always good.”
The Cougars led 34-11 at halftime and could’ve picked their final score after that.
“We were on the other side of it for a few years,” Misenheimer said. “You can’t treat this game any differently than any other game. You get yourself in trouble when you start overlooking things.”
Needless to say, the absence of starting point guard Kelly Dulkowski (illness) wasn’t really felt.
“We had other people step up,” Misenheimer said. “I thought Sarrah did a good job of leading us at the point position.”
STATESVILLE (24)ó Wodecki 7, C. Bradley 6, Witt 6, Hurdit 3, McCord 2, B. Bradley, McKinney.
CARSON (57) ó Monroe 15, Phillips 9, Blackwell 9, Holman 9, White 9, Cloninger 2, Stirewalt 2, Barringer, Clark, Cole.
States. 2 9 3 10 ó 24
Carson 20 14 10 13 ó 57