North Rowan’s girls had all they could handle but held off arch-rival Salisbury 57-52 in a regular-season ending Central Carolina Conference basketball game at the Salisbury gym Friday night.
Coach Gary Atwell’s Cavaliers used a 13-0 run in the second quarter to take charge, but didn’t really wrap it up until Joyce Hipps made two free throws with 11.4 seconds to play.
“They play so hard against us,” said Atwell. “They played very well. We’d get up 8, 10, and we could never put it away. They kept battling back.”
The victory gave North a 15-7 overall record for the regular season and a fourth-place mark of 6-6 in the CCC. Salisbury is 6-15 and 1-11, finishing all alone in last place after East Davidson beat North Stanly last night.
The Cavs play North Stanly at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday at West Davidson in the first round of the tournament.
Hipps led North’s scoring with 16 points, while Amber Hill and Crystal Craige added 13 and 12, respectively. Craige, a sophomore, scored eight points in North’s strong second quarter and matched her career high.
Ke-Ke Chunn kept the Hornets close with 23 points. Ternisha Charleston and Jamie Seay added 11 and 10, respectively.
“Miss Chunn’s hard to handle,” said Atwell. “We tried several different things. We played some triangle-and-two, box-and-one, man and zone.”
Chunn got nine of her points in the fourth quarter when Salisbury fought back from a 10-point deficit to within three with 1:25 to go on two free throws by Chiffonia Doby.
Doby also was involved in a big play with 32 seconds to go, grabbing a long rebound and hitting a basket from about 15 feet out that would have pulled her team within one. However, she was called for walking on the play.
Salisbury’s girls will play their tournament opener Monday night at West Davidson, facing No. 2 Ledford at 5:35 p.m.
NORTH ROWAN (57) — A. Hill 13, Jones 4, C. Hill 9, Hipps 16, Craige 12, Bowie 1, Hendrick 2, Suber.
SALISBURY (52) — Doby 8, Seay 10, Wilson, Chunn 23, Tern. Charleston 11,Mendez, Abel, Wingerson.
North Rowan 9 21 12 15 — 57
Salisbury 12 10 12 18 — 52
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