SPENCER — Ledford’s inside game was just too much for the North Rowan girls basketball team here Wednesday night in a 44-29 2A Central Carolina Conference loss.

“You hold a team like Ledford to 44 points, that’s all we can ask defensively,” said North coach Gary Atwell. “We just can’t match up size-wise. Our tallest kid (Courtney Hill) is 5-foot-8.”

Ledford’s 6-foot center, Lindsay Smith, hurt the Cavaliers inside and scored a game-high 21 points. Forward Alicia Stokes was also a force inside with 13 rebounds.

Ledford, which also got 14 points from guard Leslie Hinkle, who made three 3-pointers, had to win to avoid dropping into a tie for third with the Cavaliers. The Panthers improved to 17-2 overall and 6-2 in the CCC.

North (13-5, 4-4) held on to fourth place in the seven-team league.

Despite struggling a times in the first half and going down 12 points at 21-9 in the second quarter, Atwell’s Cavaliers came back to make a contest out of it. North got within three twice in the third quarter, at 26-23 and 28-25, both times on follow shots by guard Ashley Bowie.

“We cut it to three, I think, in the third quarter, and they popped it right back up to 10 again,” said Atwell.

Coach John Ralls’ Panthers actually went on a 13-point run that made it 41-25 early in the fourth period.

“I wasn’t disappointed at all with our effort,” said Atwell. ‘We played hard. Their defensive pressure — their fullcourt man-to-man and their halfcourt man-to-man — they’re just relentless, pressure-wise. We just got tired and we made poor decisions at crucial times.”

North still made only 12 turnovers, just two more than the Panthers.

Even though Ledford has an impressive record, losing only to first-place HighPoint Central and runner-up Lexington, Atwell sees a couple of differences in this Ledford team and past squads.

“They’re not quite as deep as they were. They’re pretty good 1 through 7, but they don’t go 10 or 12. They’re not as good a shooting team as they’ve been in the past. They play great defense and they get after you, so they’re going to be in every game,” he said.

As for his North team, Atwell said, “I see some good things. Our young kids are learning. They’re giving more minutes, and they’re doing some better things on defense.”

He’s looking ahead to what his team’s potential might be after the final four regular-season games.

“I think, if we can get everybody healthy and working a little bit harder, we’ll be all right by conference tournament time. I think we’ll be ready to maybe surprise somebody,” he said.

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NOTES:Joyce Hipps was North’s only double-figure scorer with 10 points. She also grabbed a team-leading eight rebounds. ... Ledford was 15-for-48 (31.3 percent) on field goals and 9-for-13 at the foul line, while North went 12-for-41 (29.3 percent) from the floor and 3-for-7 at the line. ... Stokes led the Panthers to a 36-26 rebound advantage. ...Ledford made five 3-pointers. ... Hipps and Moriah Jones hit 3s for the Cavaliers. ... North travels to North Stanly for another CCC contest on Friday.

LEDFORD (44) — Krull, Smith 21, Stokes 4, Hinkle 14, Ralls 5, Fitzgerald, Lee, Pietsch, McCarthy, Russell, Saunders.

NORTH ROWAN (29) — A. Hill 5, Hipps 10, C. Hill 4, Craige 2, Jones 4, Hendrick, Bowie 4, Peterson.

Ledford 11 13 8 12 — 44

North Rowan 5 12 8 4 — 29