Ledford’s girls rushed the court to mob Leslie Hinkle, the hero with the soft touch. The visiting Cavaliers from North Rowan trudged off toward the locker room. Their upset dream ended one point short in a 45-44 loss to the Panthers in the semifinals of the 2A Central Carolina Conference Tournament.

“Every one of us will think of something we didn’t do to win this ballgame,” Cavaliers head coach Gary Atwell said. “We won’t sleep tonight. We’ll replay this game over and over in our heads and find that one point somewhere.”

It’s a safe bet the Cavaliers shot plenty of free throws instead of counting sheep. After Megan Honeycutt scored in the lane with 14.8 seconds left to put North up 44-43, Hinkle missed a shot and the Cavs’ Courtney Hill rebounded. She was fouled with 5.6 showing, but missed both shots.

Panther Lindsay Smith rebounded, threw a pass out to Hinkle and the sophomore guard did the rest, driving to the free-throw line and pulling up for a jumper.

“Something we usually do well jumped up and bit us tonight,” Atwell said. “That’s playing in this gym in front of this kind of crowd in this type of game.

“Courtney’s probably our best free-throw shooter. I never thought she’d miss two.”

The second-seeded Panthers played host to the CCC tourney and had the fans on their side in the closing minutes. But the comforts of home didn’t translate to automatic success against the No. 3 Cavaliers — Ledford missed six free throws in the final quarter, including the front end of two one-and-one chances and two misses apiece from Smith and Casie Thomas in the final 33 seconds.

North missed six times in the final eight minutes, also failing to capitalize on two one-and-one opportunities. Following those two misses, Ledford’s Pam Oast hit the game’s only 3-pointer to put her team up 39-36 with three minutes remaining.

“When Oast made that 3 I didn’t know how we’d respond,” Atwell said. “But the girls played hard. Hinkle just made a shot there at the end.”

The final field goal was Hinkle’s second, and Oast’s 3 was just her third basket. The sluggish offensive performances from both teams had North up 11-10 after one quarter and Ledford in the lead at 19-17 at halftime.

The Panthers’ largest lead, four points, came courtesy a five-point surge to end the third quarter up 34-30.

n

NOTES: For the game, North finished 16-for-25 from the foul line, 64 percent. Ledford managed just 43 percent, going 8-for-19. … After a solid first half with eight points, Honeycutt was silenced by better Ledford defense from senior forward Kara Mendenhall. Honeycutt finished with three fourth-quarter points to give her 11 for the game. … The Cavaliers can also look to turnovers for that one more point. North turned the ball over 18 times, while Ledford gave it up on just nine occasions. … The Panthers will play top seed High Point Central in today’s title game.

NORTH ROWAN (44) — Bowie 4, Honeycutt 11, C. Hill 6, Tucker, A. Hill 15, Hipps 8.

LEDFORD (45) — Hinkle 6, Mendenhall 6, Oast 7, Ralls, McCarthy, Krull 4, Thomas 3, Hinson 6, Smith 13.

North Rowan 11 6 13 14 — 44