KANNAPOLIS — One bad quarter proved far easier to survive than one dreadful half Friday night.

The West Rowan girls basketball team cruised to a 53-34 win at Kannapolis after the Wonders scored just seven points through the first 16 minutes. Even though the Falcons (14-5 overall, 9-3 South Piedmont Conference) struggled in the third quarter, nothing the Wonders did could overcome the 24-7 halftime hole they found themselves in.

“We dug our grave,” Kannapolis head coach Doug Wilson said. “We didn’t shoot well. You can’t shoot that percentage and beat anybody, especially not a team like West.”

Kannapolis (5-12, 4-7) shot 12 percent in the first half. The 3-for-25 effort included first-quarter field goals from Tomekia Powell and Elise Stanback and a second-quarter basket by Holly Morgan. But Morgan’s baseline jumper fell with 15 seconds remaining in the half. It gave the Wonders their first points in more than five minutes.

The Falcons didn’t exactly keep the scorekeepers busy. West finished the first quarter 3-for-13 and held a ho-hum 8-4 lead before finally coming alive. Jenny Sloop scored on a putback, Kate Goodman scored twice and Kari Schenk hit a 3, converted a steal and layup and put home another layup on a backdoor cut. While the Wonders sat mired in their scoreless streak, West went on a 14-0 run and iced the game.

Or so the Falcons thought. That’s what West head coach Angie Waddell tried to stress to her team despite the 17-point halftime lead.

“Kannapolis has been coming on very strong,” Waddell said. “If you don’t play up to your potential, they’re going to beat you.”

West couldn’t hang on to the ball in the third quarter and all of Kannapolis’ shooting woes vanished as Stanback took control. The diminutive and speedy point guard drilled a 3-pointer, drove and got a friendly bounce off the glass and then pulled up for a jumper from the free-throw line. In the span of 1:14, she scored as many points (seven) as her team managed in the entire first half.

More importantly, a worried West huddled in a timeout as the lead hit single digits — 32-23 — for the first time in a long time. Morgan added another jumper at the close of the quarter to pull the Wonders within seven.

“Thirty-two (Stanback) made a couple of good shots, they all kept scoring and you look up at the scoreboard and it’s a seven-point game,” Waddell said. “If they had kept playing the way they played in the third quarter and we had kept playing the way we were playing, they probably win this game. We went back to our regular intensity.”

Sloop and Goodman rallied the Falcons with quick scores to extend the lead to 11 points, then the always-intense Goodman kicked her game up another notch, converting back-to-back moves in the low post.

When she got a steal on the Wonders’ next possession and fed Sloop for a layup, it was the Wonders’ turn for a timeout. The lead again was 15.

Sloop’s team-high eight points in the fourth quarter gave her 12 for the game, while Goodman led all scorers with 13. Schenk, after nine first-half points, also finished with 12.

Stanback led the Wonders with nine.

NOTES: It only seemed as though Kannapolis was grabbing every rebound. The teams were evenly matched on the boards until the Falcons pulled down 17 in the fourth quarter, giving them a 41-32 edge. While West’s boards were spread evenly, Powell dominated the Kannapolis glass with 17 rebounds. … After the horrid shooting start, Kannapolis ended 14-for-57 (25 percent). West shot 22-of-59, a 37-percent clip.

WEST ROWAN (53) — Honeycutt, Sloop 12, Goodman 13, McNeely 6, Pieper 4, Schenk 12, Shaver, Scearce 4, Wansley 2.

KANNAPOLIS (34) — Connor 2, Hutchinson 3, Little, Powell 6, Johnson 4, Stanback 9, Crosby 4, Morgan 6.

West Rowan 8 16 8 21 — 53