NEW LONDON — Salisbury’s girls basketball team got its first 2A Central Carolina
Conference win here Monday, edging North Stanly 58-54.Coach Jennifer Shoaf’s Hornets, led by center Sherree Gillespie and forward
Jenny Reilly with 19 and 14 points, respectively, improved to 1-4 in the CCC and 3-13
overall. The Hornets snapped a three-game losing streak.
North Stanly, coached by Stan Napier, is also 1-4
in the league. The Comets dropped to 8-6 overall.
Salisbury used its fullcourt pressure defense to
jump on the Comets early. The visitors led 12-2 early and 20-11 at the end of the first
period. North Stanly got back within one point in each of the last two quarters, but
couldn’t catch the Hornets.
“Our goal in every game is to try to get
something out of our defense early and get more active, because if we set up in our
halfcourt defense, we’re not real active and kind of go through he motions,”
said Shoaf.
The Hornets’ pressure caused most of North
Stanly’s 12 first-quarter turnovers, and the Comets finished the night with 29.
“We try to make something happen early, get
some points going and move from there. We’re not a good halfcourt offensive team, so
we would like to score off steals and fast break opportunities instead of somebody running
back and just holding on. Even thought we don’t handle the ball real well, it’s
to our advantage if people press us. If they do press and we do get a (fast) break, we at
least get a layup out of it,” said the Salisbury coach.
Gillespie, the Hornets’ 5-10 senior, is
averaging a Rowan County-leading 20.4 points, but Shoaf points out Gillespie can’t
score if her teammates can’t get the ball to her.
“If they go back and set up and we have to
work it and work it and they can’t get the ball to Sherree, they just turn it
over,” said Shoaf.
Last night, however, the Hornets had only 17
turnovers.
“That’s real good for us. I thought that
we did a good job of getting the ball into the right peoples’ hands,” she said.
That was usually Gillespie and Reilly, who had 12
of her 14 points in the first half. She also made two free throws with 11 seconds to go
after North Stanly had pulled within one point.
“Jenny has really come into her own
offensively. I need her to play a little better defense, though. She’s not a real
physical player,” said Shoaf.
Reilly, a 5-9 junior, has been in double figures
six of her last eight games. She’s averaging 8.4 points.
“It wasn’t just one person tonight,”
said Shoaf. “I would have thought Ternisha (Charleston) and Keke (Chunn) had more
points than they did as much as they were after the ball, hounding and coming up with
steals.”
Chunn had six steals, while Charleston came up with
five.
Napier was disappointed with his team’s
passing against the Salisbury press in the first half.
“My halftime speech was probably not as nice
as her’s,” he said, referring to Shoaf, whose Hornets led 34-31 at intermission.
“I was talking about, ‘We’re white;
they’re read.’ I knew we probably had a zillion turnovers (actually 15) at
halftime,” he said.
Napier said of Salisbury, “They’re quick;
they’re athletic. They’re just a time bomb waiting to go off. ... We
concentrated so hard on Sherree, we let Jenny go, and she hurt us in the first half.”
Guard Mary Stallings didn’t miss a first-half
shot (6-for-6) and led the Comets with 14 points. Center Jenny Hayes and point guard Tiana
Harris added 13 and 11, respectively.
“Hayes is coming around. She’s been my
leading scorer two out of the last three games,” he said of the 5-10 freshman, who
picked up her third foul with 3:30 left in the first quarter and didn’t play again
until the second half. she wound up 5-for-6 on field goals and 3-for-3 at the foul line
and grabbed 10 rebounds for a double-double.
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