By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS — Kayla Corriher’s 3-pointer for a tie trickled off the front of the rim, and South Rowan fell 49-46 at Northwest Cabarrus on Monday.
Corriher’s miss was a positive. That South had a legitimate chance to force overtime was remarkable given that the Raiders were down nine with 90 seconds to go.
“That’s a tough hole to get out of,” South coach Jarrod Smith said. “But we fought right down to the end.”
Melanie Zeiler scored 13 for Northwest (1-1), which led 14-3 after the first quarter.
South was without veteran guard Lauren “Goose” Miller (ankle) and lost Kaitlyn Jones (head), another experienced guard, during the contest.
South (1-1) didn’t score until Jones made a free throw three minutes into the game and didn’t make a field goal until Avery Locklear connected on a drive with 1:56 left in the half. That was South’s only field goal of the half, but the Raiders hit enough free throws to stay in it. They were down 20-11 at the break.
South put up 16 points in the third quarter, with Locklear getting half of them.
“We didn’t run our offense in the first half,” Corriher said. “The second half we ran it, and we started getting a lot better shots.”
South looked better in the second half because Lynsey Corriher, Kayla Corriher, Lauren Register and Ashlyn Coley were getting more boards.
“The first half our girls kept complaining they were going over our backs,” Smith said. “But we weren’t getting calls because we weren’t boxing out. The second half, we boxed out. The rebounding changed. The game changed.”
Still, when NWC’s Jennifer Farrar drilled a 3-pointer, the Trojans led 45-36, and it looked over. But Lynsey Corriher’s 3-pointer and a stickback by Kayla Corriher cut the deficit down to 45-41 with 1:10 remaining.
Smith used his last timeout with 38 seconds to go, and Kayla Corriher’s 3-pointer with 25 seconds left lifted the Raiders within 46-44.
Jasmine Davis made a free throw with 20 seconds left for the Trojans, but Kayla Corriher’s hit two free throws — banking the second one — to bring South within 47-46 with 10 seconds to go.
Farrar calmly hit two free throws, however, and South needed a 3 to tie. Kayla Corriher took it and almost made it.
“The play was for Avery to drive and dish to Lynsey or me,” she explained. “We got a shot, but I knew when it left my hand it was a little bit off.”
SOUTH ROWAN (46) — Locklear 13, K. Corriher 11, Allison 6, L. Corriher 5, Register 4, Jones 3, Coley 2, McConneaughey, Honeycutt, McCoy.
NORTHWEST CABARRUS (49) — Zeiler 13, Farrar 9, Spears 9, Davis 7, Swift 5, Jordan 2, Bost 2, Weiss 2.
South 3 8 16 19 — 46
NWC 14 6 11 18 — 49