Hornet girls rally to win

BY MIKE LONDON
SALISBURY POST

On a scale of 1 to 10, this one was an 11 for theHornets.

It was a win on Senior Night. It was a win in front of at least double the normal crowd for Hornet games. And it was a win that might go a long way toward putting the Hornets into the 2A state playoffs for the first time since 1996.

But it was a win that looked an awful lot like a loss for most of the evening.

“How did we win that?” a shocked Shoaf asked an hour after it was over. “How in the world? Could we have played worse for three quarters? No way.”

“No way” is right. The Hornets shot 6-for-36 for the first three quarters, which is 16.7 percent. And when they weren’t firing airballs, they were making ugly turnovers.

“We turned it over every way possible,” said Shoaf. “We walked, we double-dribbled, we threw it out of bounds.”

It wasn’t that the Hornets (6-16, 4-7) weren’t trying. The problem was that they were trying too hard.

They knew how important this game was to their chances to finish in the top four in the 2A Central Carolina Conference and all but secure a state playoff berth, and they desperately wanted to send senior star Sherree Gillespie out a winner in her last home game.

“I kept telling (guards) Keke Chunn and Ternisha Charleston they just had to calm down,” said Shoaf.

But no one could relax and no one could stop North Stanly’s Tiana Harris, a 5-3 waterbug who swam off the bench in the second quarter and promptly started dominating the game.

North Stanly led by seven after a slow-moving first half in which the Hornets managed to go 11 minutes without a field goal. The Comets still led by eight at 31-23 after three quarters, even after a paint-peeling halftime harangue by Shoaf.

“I finally turned to my assistant and said, ‘We’re dead. We’re just dead in the water,’” said Shoaf, who buried her head in her hands during a pitiful stretch that seemed to last longer than “War and Peace.”

“The pressure of the game was just getting to us.”

But the Hornets weren’t dead exactly — they were just sort of in hibernation.

Before the fourth quarter, Shoaf turned to her team and appealed to them one last time with her best “How bad do you want it?” speech. She asked them what kind of defense they wanted to play. She asked them what kind of defense — if any — they would play.

Then she told them to stop thinking and to play with their hearts. And she told them that somehow, in spite of everything, they could still win if they would just make some free throws.

“Do the opposite of what you’ve been doing and you’ll be fine!” yelled Shoaf, as her team returned to the floor.

Wonder of wonders, her message finally got across. It was a different Hornet team in the fourth quarter.

Gillespie, who had been blanketed for a long stretch, got the ball just seconds into the quarter and turned the opportunity into a 3-point play, cutting the lead to 31-26. Then Chunn stole the ball and fed Jen Reilly for a layup to make it 31-28. Just like that, the Hornets were back in the game.

The Comets were hanging on 35-32 at 4:50 when Jennifer Bauk, who shoots infrequently, banked in an 18-footer to bring the Hornets within one.

Reilly’s free throw tied the game at 35-35, then Gillespie put the Hornets in front for the first time since the first quarter when she stepped outside, faced up and nailed a 15-footer. Then Gillespie made two free throws and Charleston made one and all of a sudden the Hornets were in charge 40-35.

But Harris drilled a 3-pointer with 52 seconds left, giving the Comets one last hope.

Then with everything on the line, the Hornets executed as well as they have all season. Under heavy Comet pressure, they threw the ball inbounds nearly to midcourt to Gillespie. She dumped it to a speeding Charleston, just the way Shoaf drew it up. Charleston fed Reilly, who had filled a lane toward the hoop, and Reilly finished with a layup to clinch the comeback victory.

The Hornets’ defense down the stretch was great. Harris’ contested 3-pointer was the Comets’ only score after Mary Stallings’ jumper at the 5:33 mark.

When the smoke cleared, Salisbury had outscored North 22-7 in the final quarter and had put a beautiful rainbow of a finish on what had been three quarters of dreary disaster.

Speaking of disaster, that’s what this one was for the Comets (9-11, 2-9), who expended every ounce of effort and emotion they could muster, but still came up short in a game they had to have to salvage their season.

“We’re out of it now,” admitted coach Stan Napier. “For a long time out there, we played with confidence. But our inability to box them out, take care of the ball or put it in the hole in the fourth quarter told the story.”

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NOTES: Gillespie’s last home game was a good one. She had 17 points, 11 rebounds and four steals. ... Reilly, who is battling mono, added 13 points, eight of them in a huge fourth quarter. ... Harris finished with 18 and Stallings 12 for the Comets. ... The shot of the game was North’s Emily Coley’s runner to end the first quarter. ... The Comets were hurt by two technicals. ... Ironically, North Stanly can help Salisbury secure fourth place if it beats East Davidson on Friday. Salisbury can also clinch from its own efforts if it can beat rival North Rowan in its finale. ... The Hornets scored 20 of their points at the line. Gillespie was 9-for-16 on free throws.

NORTH STANLY (38) — Lowder, Coley 4, Hinkle, Stallings 12, Winfree, Peoples, Russell 2, Harris 18, Terry, Hayes 2, Almond.

SALISBURY (45) — Reilly 13, Charleston 3, Chunn 8, Seay, Gillespie 17, Robinson 2, Bauk 2, Taylor, Atkinson.

North Stanly 8 13 10 7 — 38

Salisbury 8 6 9 22 — 45