STATESVILLE — Stunned East Rowan fans left Statesville High’s gym on Thursday night certain that their Mustangs had just set girls basketball back a good hundred years.

Actually, it wasn’t quite that far.

East’s 66-28 beating at the hands of Statesville’s Greyhounds in a 3A North Piedmont Conference Tournament semifinal was merely the Mustangs’ worst loss in 34 seasons — since Central Davidson dropped a 64-26 anvil on them in 1967-68.

The Mustangs’ stinging setback equalled the second-worst defeat in school history. The most lopsided loss ever for a Mustang team remains — barely — their 61-21 destruction at the hands of Monroe in 1962-63.

The thing that made the magnitude of Thursday’s thumping close to unfathomable is that those ‘60s Mustang squads that were blown away were losing teams. But the current edition is 19-6 and headed for the 3A state playoffs next week. What’s more, East had pounded the Greyhounds by 16 and 19 points during the regular season.

So what gives?

Basically, second-seeded East did zero right, while third-seeded Statesville (20-5) could have won a state championship had it been playing in the Smith Center last night.

Statesville was on and intense. It buried seven 3s over East’s zone in the first half. And the Greyhounds got those 3s from five different people.

That blitz from the arc didn’t even involve Statesville’s best two players — post persons Laquavia Roseboro and Leslie Rucker (14 points)— who crashed the boards and stuck back the rare misses.

“Statesville shot the ball great and played great,” said East coach Randy Bingham. “What else can you say? When they play like that, who’s going to beat them?”

On the other hand, the Mustangs would have been hard-pressed to handle 1-23 North Rowan last night. They turned it over enough times to turn Bingham’s stomach. And they let fly with so many airballs that he tossed his tie into the stands after two minutes.

East never could get out of the gate, mostly because it couldn’t get the ball to Maggie Rich, who averages 20 points. Rich didn’t get off her first shot — she hit it — until nearly five minutes had elapsed. By then, East was down 11-2. Rich took only nine shots on the night, making three. She needed 6-for-6 free-throw shooting to get 12 points.

“Rich had kicked our butts twice (for 23 and a career-high 35) and we didn’t want that to happen again,” said Statesville coach Addie Hightower. “We used different zones (2-3, 1-1-3) and we double-teamed her whenever she got the ball.”

Sometimes when Rich is bottled up, other Mustangs step forward, but this wasn’t one of those occasions. Jordan Huffman missed her first six shots, before finding the range for eight points. The other East starters — Christal MacLamroc, Tiffany Ingold and Michelle Haynes — made one field goal between them.

“One of those nights,” said Bingham. “You know, Duke’s (men’s) team was No.1 and I’m watching TV the other night and they’re down 25 to Maryland. That’s just the nature of the game of basketball. The uncertainty makes it interesting.”

East shot 19.1 percent for the game, was outscored 27-0 from the 3-point line and was beaten beyond recognition on the boards.

The Mustangs tried to match up in the third quarter, but then Statesville shifted its attack inside and continued the punishment. East trailed by frightening scores like 26-6 and 51-18. Finally, a head-shaking Bingham cleared his bench with 3:16 left and his team hopelessly down 54-26.

The good news for East is that it’s not the end of the world. The loss could affect its playoff seeding, though. If Statesville beats top-seeded North Iredell tonight in the 6:30 championship game, the Hounds get the NPC’s No. 2 seed and East is bumped to No. 3.

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NOTES:Christy Renegar and Kara Fletcher led the Hounds’ 3-point onslaught with three apiece. ... Rich had 10 rebounds. ... Tara Ludwig’s free throws were East’s last points.

STATESVILLE (66) — Rucker 14, Kutteh 11, Renegar 10, Fletcher 9, Roseboro 7, Wells 5, Dixon 3, Keys 3, Schofield 2, Clark 2, Kirkland, Young.

EAST ROWAN (28) — Rich 12, Huffman 8, Shaw 4, Ingold 2, Ludwig 2, Kluttz, Haynes, MacLamroc, Mundy, Hall, Wood, Brown.

Statesville 16 17 11 22 — 66

East Rowan 6 6 6 10 — 28