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CONCORD — East Rowan girls coach Randy Bingham turned 50 years old Friday. Bingham probably feels he aged at least another 50 years during his team’s 64-59 loss to 3A South Piedmont Conference front-runner Central Cabarrus.
But honestly, Bingham might live to be a hundred and still not see another girls game any better than this one.
Central (14-2 overall, 9-0 SPC) started the game shooting like a boys team. No, make that a men’s team. Maybe the Philadelphia 76ers.
In the first quarter, coach Angela Morton’s Vikings approached perfection. Serlethea Smith scored 12 points before the lady who sang the national anthem sat down and Jessica Hardin was immediately 3-for-3. After eight awesome minutes in which Central Cabarrus looked a whole lot like High Point Central, the Vikings had shot 11-for-16 and made just two turnovers.
The amazing thing was that at the end of fiery first quarter, Central led only 28-21. That was mostly because East senior Lora Williams had missed only one shot while pouring in 14 points.
“I told the girls that they hadn’t missed, but we were still in it,” said Bingham. “I said. ‘Look at that scoreboard. They just scored 28 points. Most anyone else would be blown out right now, but we’re still right in the game.’ ”
The second quarter was as weird as the first quarter was wonderful. East’s 2-3 zone slowed Central to a crawl. Meanwhile, a fairly amazing amount of whistles — at one point, East had 11 fouls to the Vikings’ three — slowed the Mustangs to a snail’s pace.
Only 13 total points were scored in the quarter — none by Williams who would finish the night with a career high of 26. And none by Smith.
East shot 3-for-14 in the second quarter, so it felt very fortunate to trail 34-28 at halftime.
But Central shot 60 percent in the third to push the lead back to 10 at 48-38. And then the lead reached 11 at 57-46 with 4:51 remaining.
But the Mustangs still weren’t done. East’s Maggie Rich (12 points, 12 rebounds), Williams (nine rebounds) and Emily Rich (11 points) made one spectacular play after another in the fourth quarter, but each time Central answered the challenge.
“They showed why they’re the No. 1 team, said Bingham. “They took shots that you want to make people take — and darn if they didn’t make them. They made an awful lot of shots from 15 to 20 feet.”
Still, East’s 21-point fourth quarter and eight misses out of 14 fourth-quarter free throws by the Vikings sent the game nearly to the wire.
Maggie Rich hit Emily Rich for a layup at 2:44 to get East within eight and Maggie Rich followed that up with a steal and a coast-to-coast driving layup to cut the gap to 60-54. A free throw by Williams and another Maggie Rich to Emily Rich connection made it 62-57 with 1:41 remaining, as close as East had been in the second half.
Perhaps the biggest play of the night came with 1:09 left, the Vikings still ahead by five, and Central inside player Hardin at the foul line. Hardin missed the first. Then she missed the second. Somehow, she grabbed the rebound. She missed again. She grabbed the rebound again. She missed again and after a tie-up Central got the ball out of bounds.
“That was so big,” said Bingham. “She knew that free throw was short and she jumped in the lane and got it back. You have to give her credit.”
After Hardin’s flurry, Tiffany Garmon made one free throw for a five-point lead.
Haley Shaw made an outside shot for East (9-6, 5-4) to make it a four-point game with 50 seconds left. Then, with 33 seconds left, Central’s Kristi Killough missed two free throws and Maggie Rich rebounded. But with a chance to get within two, Emily Rich missed a runner off the glass. Maggie Rich rebounded in the lane, but her shot fell short. Smith rebounded for Central and Hardin added one last foul shot with 11 seconds left to end the scoring.
“It was a heck of a good ballgame,” said Bingham. “Earlier in the year, if we’d got down like that we wouldn’t have been able to come back. But we’re mentally tougher now. Honestly, I think we played well enough that we’d have beaten anyone else in our league. I was proud of the girls, I really was. And they’re not down right now, either. They’re pretty proud of how they played.”
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NOTES:Williams got her career high by a bunch, shooting 11-for-18 from the field. Her previous high was 18 against North in last season’s Christmas Tournament and again early this season against West Iredell. ... East freshman Jordan Huffman scored only two points, but made her presence felt with three blocks. ... Guard Tiffany Ingold had three steals and helped East limit its turnovers to five in the second half. East had 11 in the first half. ... Smith and Hardin led the Vikings with 17 points each. Central, which is shooting 45 percent on the season, shot better than 50 percent in every quarter except the second.
EASTROWAN (59) — E,Rich 11, Morgan 4, Williams 26, Huffman 2, Alexander, M. Rich 12, Shaw 2, Ingold, Haynes 2, Maclamroc.
CENTRALCABARRUS (64) — Van De Venter 4, Smith 17, Johnston 6, Miller 11, Killough 3, Woodward 1, Hardin 17, Garmon 5.
East Rowan 21 7 10 21 — 59
C.Cabarrus 28 6 14 16 — 64
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