North Rowan’s girls basketball team was leading at halftime, but by only six points, so Atwell switched to a man-to-man defense.

His third-place Central Carolina Conference team went on to take a 49-31 victory over East Davidson at the North gym.

“We wanted to increase the tempo,” said Atwell, whose Cavaliers improved to 5-2 in the CCC and 12-4 overall. “I told them we took good shots in the first half, but we were just playing too slow. We needed to get a little more excitement into the game, so we decided to go man-to-man.”

North outscored the Golden Eagles (1-4, 5-11) by 16-10 in the third quarter and 15-9 in the fourth period.

“I put Joyce (Hipps) on their best player, Megan Beck, and she did a good job on Megan,” said Atwell. Beck, usually East Davidson’s scoring leader, was scoreless for the night.

“She’s a pretty good player. I didn’t realize she didn’t score,” said Atwell. “She’s been hurt a lot this year. She’s got shin splints and some ankle problems.” Beck was an all-conference player last year.

“We created a lot of turnovers (11) in the second half, and we scored about as many points in the third quarter as we did the whole first half,” Atwell pointed out. It was 18-12 at halftime.

Forward Megan Honeycutt had a strong third quarter as North took charge. She made all four shots she tried and finished 7-for-15 for the night for 15 points.

Honeycutt was North’s only double-figure scorer, but the Cavaliers got points out of seven other players. Center Courtney Hill and reserve forward Joy Bowers scored seven each, while forward Latoya Tucker and guard Amber Hill added six each.

North’s 18-12 halftime lead was cut to 18-15 before Tucker made a 3-pointer. Two Honeycutt baskets made it 25-15, and North stayed out front by a comfortable margin the rest of the way.

Amber Hill scored all six of her points in the final quarter, when she also grabbed seven rebounds, stole the ball once and contributed two assists.

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NOTES: The Cavaliers hit 32.3 percent of their field goal attempts (20-for-62) and went 7-for-17 at the foul line. ... East Davidson struggled from the floor, going 11-for-42 (26.2 percent), but was 8-for-14 on free throws. ... Viva Campbell and Melanie Barton led the Golden Eagles with nine and eight points, respectively. ... Led by Honeycutt and Amber Hill with eight rebounds apiece, the home team had a 41-27 advantage on the boards. ... Barton had seven rebounds for the losers. ... Hipps led North in steals with five and contributed several assists plus five points. ... East Davidson had 27 turnovers, while North lost the ball 16 times. ... The Cavaliers beat East Davidson 46-34 in the season’s first meeting. ... North travels to Ledford for a tough conference contest on Tuesday.

EAST DAVIDSON (31) — Beck, Fredette 5, Barton 8, Campbell 9, Honeycutt 4, Parker, Sprinkle, Nance 2, Palmore, Michael, Slate, Fleming 3.

NORTH ROWAN (49) — Honeycutt 15, Tucker 6, C. Hill 7, Hipps 5, A. Hill 6, Bowers 7, Bowie, Craige 1, Johnson, Dunn 2.

East Davidson 2 10 10 9 — 31