MOUNTULLA — Salisbury’s girls basketball season is just two games old, but coach Jennifer Shoaf and her team have already cried enough tears for two full seasons.
Salisbury lost 37-35 at West Rowan on Tuesday night in a near replay of the Hornets’ 39-37 Wednesday night loss at South Rowan.
Down two points to the favored Falcons, the Hornets had possession for the final 30 seconds, but couldn’t score.
With 12 seconds left, Salisbury’s sensational freshman Shayla Fields whirled down the lane for a shot, but the Falcons’ own first-year phenom, Brittany Roberson, got a piece of the ball, deflecting it out of bounds.
The inbounds pass went to Amber Wingerson, who passed on a long jumper to get the ball to Fields. The freshman drove and missed a difficult banker in the lane. Time expired as 10 players scrapped for the rebound.
Fields, who has scored 33 points in her first two varsity efforts, also missed a potential game-winner in the closing seconds against South, but no one doubts she’ll soon be knocking down big shots.
“I turned to Shayla’s mom in the stands and told her, ‘Next time — next time she makes it,’ ” sighed Shoaf.
The loss was bitter for Shoaf, because she’s 0-8 against the Falcons in her career. This was her best chance so far. It was the first time in her six seasons the Hornets have lost to West by fewer than 10 points.
It was a miracle the Hornets were around at the end, because they were in serious foul trouble and scored just four points at the line. Meanwhile, West shot 41 free throws.
That foul disparity, especially in light of the fact that West was pressing ferociously, while the Hornets were playing 2-3 zone, opened the door for Shoaf to grouse about home cooking. But she blamed her squad’s rebounding, not the officials.
West coach Toni Wheeler, whose team opened with an impressive win at Central Cabarrus last week, said getting to the line was a big part of her gameplan.
“We played our style. We wanted to take it to the basket, force the issue and get them in foul trouble,” Wheeler said. “That’s what we did. We just didn’t hit on anything and didn’t take advantage of their turnovers early in the game.”
Mostly West couldn’t shoot straight. It clanged 24 free throw attempts and nearly that many layups.
“We had three goals,” said West guard Hillary Hampton. “To hold Salisbury under 40 points, to stay under 15 turnovers and to make 70 percent of our foul shots. The only goal we reached was holding them under 40. That’s why Coach promised to introduce us to (running) the stairs tomorrow.”
West never trailed, but never built more than an eight-point lead.
The Falcons (2-0) were up 16-8 and on the verge of taking charge late in the first half, but Salisbury’s Jamie Seay hit two 3-pointers in the final 34 seconds.
“That girl (Seay) came out of nowhere,” said West guard Blair Harkey. “We didn’t really talk about her.”
Four spectacular Fields field goals in the third quarter got the Hornets even at 26-26.
Roberson’s interception on West’s press — one of 32 turnovers by Salisbury — led to a Hampton layup that put the Falcons ahead to stay at the start of the fourth. West soon surged ahead by six on a Jacqueline White drive, but Seay’s third 3-pointer kept the Hornets knocking at the door.
West led 37-33 after two Hampton free throws with 1:33 remaining. Then Fields dished to Wingerson to cut Salisbury’s deficit to 37-35 at the 1:15 mark. But no one scored the rest of the way, leaving the Hornets to play the what-if game and leaving the Falcons to wonder what happened to the offense that cranked out 71 points last Tuesday.
“We were overconfident tonight because our last game was so good,” said Hampton. “We were a little cocky. We took them lightly and we shouldn’t have. They’re a lot better than last year.”
“Salisbury packed their zone tight and we couldn’t make a shot,” added Harkey. “We really got lucky to pull this one out. But that’s how it goes.”
Shoaf just hopes that’s not how it’s going to keep on going.
“We don’t want to get the label that we’re not a good team,” she said. “I believe we have a good team. You don’t lose two-point games to good teams if you’re bad. We know we can stay in games. The question now is can we win.”
SALISBURY (35) — Fields 16, Seay 11, Wingerson 7, Connor 1, Gillespie, Hanrahan, Bauk, Edwards, Charleston.
WEST ROWAN (37) — Hampton 13, Roberson 9, White 4, Jones 3, Massey 3, Lewis 3, Harkey 2, Hartsell, Heggins, Peek.
Salisbury 3 11 12 9 — 35
West Rowan 8 11 7 11 — 37
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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com
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