Let’s hope the unbeaten North Rowan girls basketball team took good notes Thursday night at Goodman Gymnasium.
Everything the Lady Cavs learned in their too-close-for-comfort victory over East Rowan will be on the final exam.
“This is a team that hopes to go a long way,” coach Gary Atwell said after top-seeded North’s 45-43 win the Sam Moir Classic semifinals. “They think they can beat anybody they play. And they’re gonna see teams like this again. Teams that play a physical, in-your-face game and make you work for every basket.”
Only problem was North didn’t punch the clock until the fourth quarter, when it used an 11-0 run to erase a 36-28 deficit. It took Courtney Hill’s tie-breaking layup with three seconds remaining to avert a potential stop-the-presses upset.
“That would have been really tough,” said teammate Joyce Hipps. “We’re undefeated and we want to stay that way. Tonight we found a way to win by pulling everything together in the fourth quarter. We just took a long time to do it.”
The danger, of course, is for the 8-0 Cavs to be pleased with their room-temperature performance. They shot 30 percent from the floor and made only seven of 29 field goal attempts in the second half.
“We’re not pleased at all,” insisted Hill, who scored nine of her team-high 13 points in the final period. “We can’t be. Nobody really played well. Atwell was all over us for not being aggressive. Yes, we’re happy we won. But we’re not happy with the way we played this game.”
Even East coach Randy Bingham understood that sentiment.
“I think each team had a crisis moment and each team got through it,” he said. “We gave them a scare. Just not enough of one. They didn’t shoot well but I’d like to think our defense had something to do with that.”
It had everything to do with it. North missed its first three shots and looked out of sync for most of the first three periods.
“It took us a while to get used to the big (94-foot) court,” said Hill, who made five of six free throws in the final quarter. “A lot of your shots come up short. Once we figured it out, we played much better. What we’ve got to do is come out and play great defense and start running right away instead of waiting until it’s almost too late. That’s our game. That’s what we do.”
North — and Hill — did it particularly well in the last six minutes. The Cavs tied the score when she sank two free throws with 27.2 seconds to play, then got a huge, face-saving turnover when sophomore Moriah Jones knocked the ball away from East’s Lora Williams.
“I had to do something to get that ball back so we could go down and try to win this thing,” said Jones. “With all the experience on this team, I knew we would calm down and somehow come all the way back.”
Then came Hill’s game-winning kiss off the glass, a basket that turned ugliness into something beautiful for the Cavs.
“It was ugly,” said Atwell. “But look what they gained from this. They got in a game that was very physical and learned to relate to how the referees were calling the game. They did a good job of keeping their heads and keeping their composure when it got tight.”
As for the approaching CCC season, Atwell felt the lessons learned Thursday were priceless.
“It’s all stuff that will help them down the line when they go to High Point Central and go to Ledford,” he said. “That’s like going to a war zone. You’re going to get hammered. You’re going to get physically beat around and you just have to be able to play to it.”
If not, the highly touted Lady Cavs won’t be offering postseason’s greetings to anyone come February.
“Don’t worry about that,” assured Hill. “This won’t ever happen again. I’m positive.”
n
David Shaw is a sportswriter for the Post.
Today's News