BY MIKE LONDON
SALISBURY POST

MOUNTULLA — West Rowan’s girls basketball team played maybe it’s best and worst quarters of the season back to back on Friday night.

A sensational second quarter in which the Falcons shot 10-for-13 from the field was the difference-maker as West stayed in the thick of the race for second place in the 3A South Piedmont Conference with a 60-47 win over A.L. Brown.

It was West’s 16th straight win over the Wonders, dating back to December of 1989, but it may have been the strangest game in the long series. West (12-7, 9-3) had a 17-0 run of complete dominance in the first half. The Wonders (8-10, 6-6) answered with a 19-2 blitz of their own in the second half to whittle an imposing 27-point Falcon lead down to 10.

West led only 9-8 when the Wonders went cold and didn’t score for over seven minutes. It was 26-8 before the Wonders broke the spell. By halftime, West had rolled up a 39-14 edge. Sara Pieper, who made three straight jumpers in one stretch, and Jenny Sloop were already in double figures. The Falcons had made only six turnovers despite playing at a furious pace and had gone 8-for-9 from the foul line. They were near perfect.

“Our first half was just excellent,” said West coach Angie Waddell.

“It was the same way we played against Northwest (in a big Falcon win) last week,” said West guard Hillary Hampton.

Meanwhile, the Wonders had shot a dreadful 20 percent (6-for-30) in the first 16 minutes, had been walloped on the boards and had gotten only two points from the line.

“I didn’t know if we were going to break 20 for the night,” sighed coach Doug Wilson. “Getting shots wasn’t a problem for us — making them was.”

Waddell gave the required halftime speech about not taking anything for granted, but the Falcons apparently paid more attention to the ongoing Mr. West Rowan festivities than their coach’s advice.

And they paid for it in the third quarter.

“Waddell said we couldn’t come out flat,” said Hampton, “but that’s what we did. Kannapolis has a real quick team. We made a lot of mistakes and they took advantage.”

Pieper hit Hampton for a layup to start the second half to give West an overwhelming 41-14 lead. But the Falcons scored only two points over the next six and a half minutes, as the Wonders picked up their defensive intensity. A.L. Brown went on a rampage, creating 11 Falcon turnovers in the third quarter.

“We didn’t play all that great,” said Pieper. “But it was really more Kannapolis than anything. In the second half, they started playing like they can play.”

West’s lead was all the way down to 43-33 after an Elise Stanback steal and layup with 1:07 left in the third quarter. But West’s Kristen McNeely found Shameeka alone underneath for what may have been the biggest hoop of the game to finally halt the Wonder whirlwind.

“Kannapolis can take it to you,” said Waddell. “And we did some things that were sort of unforced. We got a little frustrated and made some bad decisions. We just had to move on from that third quarter.”

The Wonders were still in the game, trailing 54-43 with 1:34 left to play, but Hampton took charge down the stretch. She controlled the ball and made late five free throws, West’s only charity attempts of the half.

“That’s just part of the game,” shrugged Hampton. “You get used to it.”

“You’ve got to give Hillary credit,” said Wilson. “She’s a freshman, but she stepped up there and made the free throws. If she doesn’t make ‘em, hey, who knows?”

Sloop and Hampton finished with 14 points each and Pieper scored 12 for West. Hampton also had five steals and three blocks, despite getting a face full of floor on one wild sequence in the lane.

“I went up twice and got knocked down,” said Hampton. “Then Shameeka was trying to dodge me, but there was this girl hanging on her. Then I got dragged around a little bit. Finally, I just gave up and laid back down.”

But that was the only time anyone gave up.

The Wonders are still the equator in the SPC, having swept the four teams below them, while getting swept by the four top teams, but they showed in the second half that they’re getting close to breaking through against one of the powers.

“We didn’t give up and we could have,” said Stanback, who led the Wonders with 20 points. “But we can’t loaf around like we did in the first half and then try to make up for it all at once. We’ve gotta play hard from the start.”

A.L. BROWN (47) — Stanback 20, Johnson 12, Morgan 5, Hutchinson 4, Crosby 4, Powell 2, Rodgers, Brown.

WESTROWAN (60) — Hampton 14, Sloop 14, Pieper 12, McNeely 7, Wansley 7, Moore 4, Massey 2, Dowdy, Scearce, Jones.

A.L. Brown 8 6 20 13 — 47

West Rowan 18 21 6 15 — 60