West girls top East 61-47

Hampton’s brother, Ben, later entered the room, tried to calm his sister down and informed her that West Rowan had taken a seven-point lead against East Rowan.

Hillary admitted that she quickly felt a lot better.

West Rowan, which trailed 20-17 at the break, went on a 17-2 run to start the second half and knocked off the Mustangs 61-47 on Friday night.

North Iredell won Friday to clinch first place in the North Piedmont Conference, and the Falcon victory creates a three-way tie for second place between West, East and Statesville.

Remarkably, the Falcons made their move against the Mustangs without Hampton.

“We just wanted to go out and win it for her,” said West’s Jacqueline White, who is Hampton’s cousin. “She’s a big part of the team, but we knew we could do it.”

The Falcon coaches and players were probably the only ones.

Hampton had fired a long 3-pointer from the top of the key seconds before the buzzer, and she collided with East’s Maggie Rich while chasing down the rebound. Hampton hit her head on the floor and passed out, and she didn’t raise to her feet until more than 10 minutes had passed.

“She’s hard as a rock, and she falls like that all the time,”West coach Toni Wheeler said. “I really didn’t think she was hurt at first.”

The Falcons (17-6, 8-4) started the second half without Hampton, and matters got worse when Brittany Roberson picked up her fourth foul 24 seconds in.

Kristina Lewis and Lyndsey Gay provided a spark, though, combining for 14 of the Falcons’ first 20 points after halftime.

Lewis(10 points) had four offensive rebounds and hit her first three shots of the third quarter, and Gay (14 points) was perfect on two field goal tries and two free-throw attempts.

“I wasn’t nervous at all,”Gay said. “I was ready to go out there and do what I could, especially after Hillary got hurt.”

East(19-4, 8-4) hurt itself by making only 1 of its first 12 shots in the first six minutes after intermission.

Rich led the way with 14 points, and Haley Shaw had 12.

“We came out of the locker room and still saw (Hampton) out on the floor, and I think our kids thought, ‘All we have to do is walk out on the floor in the second half and we have this won,’” East coach Randy Bingham said. “You have to give West credit, that’s when they started playing.”

Hampton, who finished with 15 points, got to see the last four that West scored in the decisive run. After convincing a trainer that she was OK, she returned to the bench with 4:09 left in the third quarter.

Hampton checked back in with 5:15 left in the fourth quarter and scored six more points.

“(The trainer) kept asking me how my head hurt, and every time I said it hurt, he said I had to sit out longer,” said Hampton, who had a knot over her right eye. “Finally, I just told him it didn’t hurt.”

Hampton said she about passed out again when she stood at the free-throw line late in the game, but she started blinking her eyes rapidly to stay alert.

Hampton made her first four free-throw tries after returning, and West connected on 14 of 24 in the final period.

The Falcons made 25 of 42 for the game, while East hit on only 1 of 14 attempts.

East could have clinched a tie for first with a win, but Bingham and Wheeler have to wait until this morning’s seed meeting at 10 a.m. in Statesville to know where they stand.

WEST ROWAN (61) — Hampton 15, Gay 14, Lewis 10, White 9, Harkey 6, Harstell 5, Massey 2, Roberson, Jones.

EAST ROWAN (47) — Rich 14, Shaw 12, MacLamroc 8, Ingold 6, Huffman 5, Kluttz 2, Mundy, Haynes, Brown.

West Rowan 7 10 21 23 — 61

East Rowan 5 15 6 21 — 47

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