West Rowan sent a message to the rest of the girls basketball universe Wednesday night.
There was only a little bragging, few bold predictions and no trash talk from the Falcons after an easy 65-33 opening night road win over Salisbury. But West’s on-court message — “Hey folks, we’re still pretty good” —came across loud and clear. Presumably, it was a communication that was heard across Rowan, Cabarrus and Union counties.
“We’ve got a lot to make up for not having Kari (Schenk) and Kate (Goodman),” said Falcon senior guard Kristen McNeely, one of three returning starters from a 23-win team. “We heard it all summer about how we weren’t going to be much, so I guess we have something to prove.”
“Yeah, we’re decent,” added all-county senior forward Sara Pieper, who will play inside more this season to help replace Goodman’s board-banging. “There will be a lot of good teams. We don’t have any superstars, but I think we’ll be one of those good teams.”
The question that’s been asked of West coach Angie Waddell since last March is how can she replace both an all-county forward like Goodman and an East-West All-Star point guard like Schenk.
Waddell has a very good answer. No one Falcon or two Falcons can do it, she says. Everyone up and down the roster has to do a little more.
That’s what happened. Waddell got balance to replace the 27 points she could count on nightly from Goodman and Schenk.
Jenny Sloop, who didn’t start, led West with 13 points, by doing the same stuff she’s always done — boxing out and rebounding aggressively.
“We did miss a lot of layups and we’ve got to get in better basketball shape, but our scoring balance, defense and rebounding were pleasing for our first game,” said Waddell.
Scoring and rebounding balance came from a bevy of veteran Falcons. Pieper had nine points and 10 boards; McNeely had eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers; Danielle “Red” Scearce scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds; Shameeka Wansley added seven points.
Then there was a non-veteran — freshman point guard Hillary Hampton.
Because Hampton is extraordinarily quick, will likely be a four-year starter and plays Schenk’s old position, she’ll have to get used to comparisons with the departed 1,000-point scorer, unfair though they may be at this early stage of her career.
But Hampton didn’t look the least bit nervous in her varsity debut, playing the sort of stifling on-the-ball defense that Schenk would have been proud of. Hampton scored nine points, mostly off her defense. She and McNeely combined for 14 steals and pressed Salisbury into a 36-19 hole by intermission.
“We were concerned after our scrimmages about our guards’ passing and ballhandling, but it looks like we found a good little playmaker in Hillary,” said Waddell. “She should work out well.”
“West has speed and our guards just couldn’t handle their pressure,” sighed Salisbury coach Jennifer Shoaf.
West led just 7-6 midway through the first quarter, but then went on a 27-5 tear over the next 10 minutes that looked awfully familiar. Sloop, Pieper and another new face, Ashley Dowdy, pounded the boards in that stretch.
McNeely punched in both her 3s within a 48-second span in the third quarter as West pushed its lead to as many as 35. Pieper’s no-look pass to a streaking Hampton for a layup made it 55-22 with 10 minutes still left in the game. At that point, Waddell checked out her bench. Natalie Jones impressed with two nice shots, as West reserves traded buckets with the Hornets the rest of the way.
“When I look at the film, I’m gonna see bad mistakes that led to turnovers,” sighed Shoaf. “We also got killed on the boards (it ended up 47-35) and missed a bunch of easy shots in close.”
Shoaf did get a splendid game out of KeKe Chunn, who produced over half the Hornets’ offense with 17 points. Chunn also pulled down 10 rebounds to meet the opening-night goals Shoaf set for her.
But the Hornets shot just 24 percent and outside of Chunn, no one had more than five points. Jenny Reilly, the Hornets’ lone returning all-county player, had tough shooting luck, but did secure seven rebounds.
Now the Hornets must rebound against South, which visits Friday. Meanwhile, West will get back to basics in its own gym until its sees the Raiders next Tuesday.
“I know we’re gonna work on layups tomorrow at practice,” moaned McNeely, who missed a couple of flying, left-handed attempts. “But this was a pretty good night. Ithought we worked together well as as a team.
“Yeah, we’re gonna be OK.”
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NOTES:West has beaten the Hornets nine straight times. The last Salisbury win was by a Donna Carr-led team in 1995. ... Ternisha Charleston had five steals for Salisbury, while Jamie Seay made the Hornets’ only 3-pointer.
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