MOUNTULLA— East Rowan’s girls basketball coach Randy Bingham thought his team could beat cross-county rival West Rowan Tuesday night by pressing the Falcon guards.

But all Kristen McNeely and Hillary Hampton did was impress.

After a sloppy start by both teams, the Falcons began figuring out how to get the ball downcourt and that was the key in West’s 48-38 South Piedmont Conference victory.

West improves to 4-0 and 2-0 while East fell to 3-2 overall and 1-2.

While the West guards came through, it was what the East guards didn’t do that had Bingham shaking his head.

“Somebody has got to take the ball to the middle against their zone,” he pleaded. “It’s so simple. You look inside and somebody is going to be open. But we couldn’t get anybody to do that and that’s what beat us.”

It was a typical East-West game — aggressive and intense. In fact, with both teams pressing at the outset, it became a little too aggressive. Turnovers in the helter-skelter first quarter had the ball — and bodies — flying all over the court. In fact, West coach Angie Waddell called a very quick timeout.

“I could see we weren’t ourselves,” she said. “It took a while to get into it. We knew of East’s reputation as a good basketball team. We looked a little too jittery.”

There were 10 lead changes in the first half as both teams went on mini-runs. A Maggie Rich rebound basket put East ahead 6-2. But a Jenny Sloop layup put West up 8-6. Emily Rich’s 15-footer gave East a 12-10 lead. And on it went until a free throw by Hampton gave Waddell a tedious 21-20 advantage at halftime. And she was happy to have it after being outrebounded 29-13 in the first 16 minutes.

“We really talked about (rebounding) at halftime,” Waddell said. “In all honesty, they could’ve been killing us.”

But Bingham cringed on the sidelines as his team missed follow shot after follow shot.

“We missed a lot tonight,” he said.

His hopes for a better second half never materialized. Four straight points by Hampton widened the margin to 27-22. After buckets by Michelle Haynes and Rich made it 27-26, McNeely scored off a feed from Danielle Scearce, followed by free throws by Hampton and Scearce for a 31-26 lead going into the final eight minutes.

That’s when Hampton and McNeely started dominating in the backcourt. When they weren’t breaking the press for baskets and assists, they were stealing the ball on defense.

And Bingham is now a fan.

“I felt they would be fairly weak at guard,” Bingham said, “but the freshman girl Hillary did a good job getting the ball upcourt.”

McNeely, along with Scearce and Sara Pieper, was mired in foul trouble, but she never held back.

“Fouling tends to take you out of the game but I don’t think it took anything away from Kristen’s aggressiveness,” Waddell said. “I like that from her. And Hillary is making good decisions. She’s learning a lot from playing early.”

The guards scored seven of the fourth quarter’s first nine points, the other two coming on a Shameeka Wansley follow shot. The 9-2 run put West safely ahead 40-28. Lora Williams, playing with a bad right thumb, tried valiantly to lead East back and the Mustangs got within 42-36 with 1:41 left. But that was their last gasp.

“I thought both teams played sloppy,” Bingham said. “I think West can play a lot better and I know we can.”

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NOTES: Pieper picked up her second foul early and was not a factor, finishing with four. ... The teams combined for 3-of-13 from the foul line. ... They combined for 25 first-half turnovers. ... Point guard Williams finished with 11 rebounds. Haynes had 10. ... A late flurry gave Wansley 10 boards for the game. ... West goes to Northwest Cabarrus Friday while East travels to Harding.

EASTROWAN (38) — E. Rich 15, Williams 9, Shaw 6, Haynes 4, Morgan 2, M. Rich 2, Huffman.

WESTROWAN (48) — Hampton 14, McNeely 7, Sloop 6, Wansley 6, Moore 4, Scearce 3, Jones 2, Massey 2.

East Rowan 8 12 6 12 — 38

West Rowan 10 11 10 17 — 48