KINGS MOUNTAIN — If Randy Bingham doesn’t show up for work today, it will probably be from exhaustion. It’s certain he didn’t get much sleep last night after his East Rowan girls basketball team was ousted from the first round of the 3A state playoffs.
“I’ll replay this one about 400 times and get to bed about 5 a.m.,” said Bingham after his Mustangs fell just short at Kings Mountain, 52-50.
He’ll replay it because it was (how many times have you heard this from Bingham this year?) a game East Rowan could’ve won.
Despite the Mounties’ 6-2 center Shonda Cole, despite a road game, despite Kings Mountain’s 17-6 record coming in, East made clutch plays and decisions throughout. Bingham was praised by Mounties coach Kevin Moss for his strategy against Cole and against his trapping press. East was praised by Moss as a solid, fundamentally sound
ballclub.
But when Maggie Rich’s last-ditch attempt bounced tantalizingly on the rim for a second before falling off, none of that mattered.
And with the miss, a season that Bingham thought should show at least 20 wins, finished at 15-10 for the South Piedmont Conference’s No. 5 seed.
Even Moss showed some compassion for the teary-eyed Mustangs as they filed past him.
“It’s disappointing that they had to lose in the first round,” he said. “That’s a very skilled team.”
But so is Kings Mountain, the No. 2 seed from the Southwestern 3A. Cole finished with 19 points, 15 rebounds and six blocked shots and got just enough help from her teammates to hold off the pesky Mustangs.
Maggie’s older sister, Emily, matched Kings Mountain with nine points in the first period as East took a 13-9 lead.
“We hung in this game pretty well,” Bingham said. “I usually worry about them starting out more than finishing.”
During the next three quarters, both teams traded leads and offensive surges.
When Cole grabbed a rebound off a missed free throw and scored, Kings Mountain finally appeared to be pulling away, leading 45-38 with 5:56 remaining.
But here came East again. Williams and Stephanie Morgan combined for four straight free throws for a 45-42 deficit. After Kings Mountain scored, Haley Shaw swished one from the corner. A Lora Williams steal was converted into a sweeping layup. And when freshman Jordan Huffman grabbed a rebound from Cole, she hit a short jumper.
With three minutes remaining, East had stunned the home crowd with its sudden 48-47 lead.
Bingham eventually called timeout with 2:06 left, still clinging to the one-point cushion. His orders: hold the ball.
“Itold them to make it look like we were (trying to) score,” he said. But East kept turning it over.
And Cole finally took over.
The talented sophomore scored on a lob for a 49-48 lead and after an airball by East, Katie Bennett hit the first of her two free throws with 37 seconds left. She missed the second but Cole was there for the putback and a 52-48 lead, the last of her 10 fourth-quarter points.
Once again, East crawled back in the game. With 11 seconds remaining, Williams hit two free throws for a 52-50 deficit.
With 9.9 ticks left, Anna Ramey, an 85-percent foul shooter, missed. Maggie Rich grabbed the rebound, headed downcourt with a head of steam and went up for the drive that just missed.
“I thought that’s what she should’ve done,” Bingham said. “The ball went everywhere but in. Hopefully, you’ll get the shot and a foul — we didn’t get either.”
A mad scramble for the rebound turned into a jump ball. It was East’s possession but only two-tenths of a second remained and the Mustangs never got another shot off.
Perhaps the biggest reason for the loss, Bingham mused, was that Emily Rich, averaging 14.5 per game, was a forgotten star.
“That hurt us,” Bingham sighed. “She didn’t touch the ball a lot in the second half. She got hung out to dry over on the wing.”
And things like that have driven Bingham batty this season. It’s always something, whether an unlucky bounce, a phantom call or forgetting about your leading scorer when you need her the most.
“It has been that kind of year,” Bingham sighed. “It’s hard to explain.”
And after replaying it 400 times, he might be at work right now — still without an answer.
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NOTES: Williams finished her career with a 16-point night. Rich followed with 15 — and no one else had more than Michelle Haynes’ six. ... Moss wasn’t expecting East as an opponent. “Their No. 5 seed, Kannapolis, won the tournament and I did two weeks of studying them,” he said. ... Besides Williams and Rich, East also said goodbye to seniors Morgan and Julie Alexander. ... Huffman, who had five rebounds, and Maggie Rich, give Bingham a strong nucleus next year.
EAST ROWAN (50) — Williams 16, E. Rich 15, Haynes 6, Shaw 5, Morgan 4, Huffman 2, M. Rich 2, Alexander.
KINGS MOUNTAIN (52) — S. Cole 19, Ramey 12, Leigh 10, Thomas 3, C. Cole 3, Bennett 3, Gay 2.
E. Rowan 13 7 16 14 — 50
K. Mountain 9 12 13 18 — 52
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