High Point Central played without leading lady Rachel Stockdale on Monday, which was little consolation to the Salisbury Hornets.
The best girls basketball team in the state cruised to a 69-20 victory, improving to 18-0 overall and 7-0 in the Class 2A Central Carolina Conference.
Monday’s 49-point margin followed up the 84-31 defeat suffered by the Hornets (6-10, 1-6) in High Point earlier this year.
Stockdale, an N.C. State signee, was out sick with the flu, which paved the way inside for sophomore Nikki Warren —who still didn’t start, further testament to just how good the Bison are. Warren came off the bench and scored 17 points in the paint, while point guard Velinda Vuncannon pulled off a nice triple double with 17 points, 10 assists and 10 steals.
Vuncannon’s name is one Rowan County hoops fans can expect to hear for the next four years.The senior is headed to
Lenoir-Rhyne of the South Atlantic Conference and will be making several more trips to Salisbury to face Catawba College.
Vuncannon finished 8-for-8 from the field, getting most of her points off steals in the first quarter. She had six points before the Hornet girls took six shots, as Central jumped out to a 12-0 advantage.
Her steal and layup made it 17-1 before Anita Edwards hit the first Salisbury basket at the 1:25 mark. JamieSeay followed with a 3-pointer to “trim” the lead to 21-6 at the end of the quarter.
The Hornets finished the period with 10 turnovers and added 11 more in the second quarter.
“We turned the ball over too much like always,”Salisbury head coach Jennifer Shoaf said. “Their pressure caused a lot of it, but our mental mistakes helped it along.”
The 11 second-quarter miscues helped High Point to another big period. The Bison launched a 19-0 run over the first six minutes, getting baskets from five different players. Warren finished off the hot streak with three straight scores down low and had 11 points.
Salisbury didn’t scratch until Alicia Gray’s jumper at the 1:54 mark, and the halftime lead stood at 44-8.
“I was proud of the kids. We’ve got a little more, personnel-wise, and I told them to play well,”Central head coach Kenny Carter said. “Overall I think we played hard. Everyone got a chance to play and we went about it in a business-like fashion.”
Central didn’t press in the second half and the Hornets showed their appreciation by only turning the ball over seven times in the final two quarters. The offense still struggled, though.
After Ke-Ke Chunn scored on a nice give-and-go from Seay 20 seconds into the half, five minutes passed before Chunn’s jumper added to the Salisbury point total. In between, Leslie Cook rained in a pair of 3-pointers to spark a 12-0 run.
Chunn’s two late jumpers closed the third quarter with Central leading 58-14.
“I thought we did a lot better in the second half,”Shoaf said. “We got people open, found some open shots. They saw that they could actually do it.”
The looks improved further in the final quarter, but the Hornet field-goal percentage did not. Salisbury made just 2-of-15 shots in the last eight minutes. For the game, the Hornets shot 8-for-46 (17 percent), while the Bison were 29-for-55 (53 percent).
Ternisha Charleston didn’t play much for Salisbury after spraining her left ankle for the third time this season.
And Shoaf’s squad found itself dealing with a whole other situation heading into the game as well— senior leader Jenny Reilly, out with a knee injury, wasn’t at the game because her parents were injured in a car accident the night before.
Shoaf said both Art and Marilee Reilly were fortunate to be alive after the nearly head-on collision.
“It was real quiet before the game. We’re a pretty close-knit group, a family,”Shoaf said. “We’re trying to tread water, but we’re sinking pretty quick. I’m glad we could get that one behind us.”
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NOTES: Not all of Vuncannon’s shots came off steals and
layups. In addition to a few nice pullup jumpers, she drained a 3 from NBArange, just for fun, for her last shot in the fourth quarter. … Seay hit her second 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter, while Ticora Jones added a late jumper to round out Salisbury’s scoring. … The Hornets travel to tough Lexington on Friday, while the Bison get super showdown No. 2 with Ledford.
HIGHPOINTCENTRAL (69) — Martin, Vuncannon 17, Hendley 7, Fulp, Cook 13, Leach 4, Green 1, Warren 17, Kirby 6, Obie 4.
SALISBURY (20) — Mendez, Gray 2, Chunn 8, Charleston, Doby, Jones 2, Wingerson, Edwards 2, Seay 6, Wilson.
HPCentral 21 23 14 11 — 69
Salisbury 6 2 6 6 — 20
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