BY STEVE HANF
SALISBURY POST

SPENCER— Things looked great for Randy Bingham’s team at halftime.

His East Rowan girls had rallied from as many as nine points down to forge a tie. North wasn’t shooting the ball well and had foul trouble to worry about. So at 28-all, life wasn’t so bad.

“We did a real good job getting back in the ballgame late in the second quarter,”Bingham said. “I thought we were on our way.”

Instead, the Mustangs scored just 11 points in the final 16 minutes. Two long dry spells — the first 5:35 of the third quarter and a 4:18 stretch that lasted into the fourth — helped the Cavaliers pull away to the 58-39 victory.

“The biggest thing we’ve run into all year is not scoring,”Bingham said. “I kept looking at the score in the third quarter and it never changed. It frustrates our girls, and as a result of that they start doing crazy things.”

East, which fell to 4-3 overall after the nonconference loss, shot 5-for-17 in the second half and committed 16 turnovers.

While the Mustangs struggled out of the locker room, North (4-0) ran off 11 straight points. Amber Hill, who didn’t score in the first half thanks to three quick fouls, hit a pair of jumpers, Courtney Hill scored twice down low and Joyce Hipps added a bucket and free throw.

Lora Williams’ hoop at the 2:25 mark finally stopped the run, and Emily Rich’s three-point play seconds later trimmed the lead to 40-33 heading into the fourth. But two quick turnovers to open the final period put North’s lead back to 10 points.

Amber Hill salted the game away with a pair of 3-pointers from the corner and a baseline jumper that made it 54-37 with three minutes to play.

“Coming off the bench I didn’t think I could do that, I thought I would be cold,”Amber Hill said. “I can do it in practice. That’s the main place where I score from — come to the corner and shoot the 3.”

Hipps led the Cavaliers with 13 points, Amber Hill had 12 and Courtney Hill 11. All nine North girls who played scored. Crystal Craige tallied all six of her points in the second quarter, Moriah Jones scored five in the first half and Ashley Bowie drained two long jumpers for five points as well.

Ashley Witherspoon and Danielle Suber each had two points.

“The bench did a heck of a job. Witherspoon had a real good game inside tonight,”Atwell said. “She does a lot of things that don’t always show up in the scoring totals.”

Bingham was pleased with Williams’ production. The East point guard has been limited this season with a severely jammed thumb, but scored nine of the Mustangs’ 13 points in the first quarter on 4-for-4 shooting. She had two steals and fastbreak layups to put East up 6-2, then added a 3 late in the quarter.

Freshman Maggie Rich keyed the second-quarter comeback with six points. North led 27-18 before East rallied behind its pressure defense, forcing 13 turnovers in the quarter. Rich scored four straight points, Williams followed with a steal and layup and two more Rich free throws made it 28-all at the half.

“The last three minutes of the second quarter were ugly. We did a lot of stupid things,”Atwell said. “We went into a funk, and for us to get to the best of our ability, we’ve got to get away from that one black cloud that hangs over us for two or three minutes every game.”

Luckily for Atwell’s Cavaliers, their funk didn’t last nearly as long as East’s.

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NOTES: North was just getting warmed up this week, with a home game tonight against West Rowan and road trip Friday to South. East takes on Northwest Cabarrus on Friday. … Atwell was happy to see Amber Hill rebound from the foul-plagued start. “Amber got those three fouls real early,”he said. “She’s still a sophomore and she’s going to do some anxious, out-of-control things from time to time.” … After each team shot 16 free throws in the first half, East went 1-for-3 in the second half while North was 8-for-15.

EAST (39) — Williams 13, E.Rich 8, M.Rich 8, Morgan 4, Huffman 4, Haynes 2, Ingold, Maclamroc, Alexander.

NORTH (58)— Hipps 13, A.Hill 12, C.Hill 11, Craige 6, Bowie 5, Jones 5, Witherspoon 2, Suber 2, Hendrick 2.

East Rowan 13 15 5 6 — 39

North Rowan 13 15 12 18 — 58