South girls end season

LANDIS—For 25 glorious minutes, the Raiders played the game of their lives.

Shots went down, from inside and out. Good defense left the opposition tentative. Turnovers, South Rowan’s Achilles Heel all season, were limited.

With 90 seconds remaining in the third quarter Monday night, South held a comfortable 49-40 lead over Durham Riverside in the first-round game of the 4Astate playoffs.

It took just 18 seconds for dreams of a second-round game to evaporate.

Riverside scored six points in 18 seconds to close out the quarter down just 52-50. The Pirates kept the momentum going into the fourth quarter, using a 19-2 run to run away with a deceiving 76-61 victory.

“That was a real big swing,”South senior Mandy Yost said. “It turned the game. We couldn’t get our patience back and we never got the lead back after that.”

South (15-11)erased a 38-36 halftime deficit with a dominating start to the third quarter. Alexius Blackwood (12 points) andSade Jordan (13 points, 11 rebounds)each scored in the post, then Katie Willett and Yost (nine points each) grabbed long rebounds and raced the other way for layups.

The 8-1 run pushed the Raiders ahead 44-39 and had Riverside coach Margretha Chambers calling timeout. But thePirates continued to struggle, missing their first 10 shots of the quarter and managing all of two free throws.

When Paris Rucker (16 points) and Keosha Mack scored the next five points, South led 49-40.

That’s when disaster struck. Pirate Yanumbe Shelman got a steal and raced in for a layup. She missed her foul shot for the three-point play, but Danielle Rodgers got the putback for a four-point swing. Shelman struck again with a long jumper after another turnover.

“We didn’t handle the press well and they started hitting their shots,”Raiders head coach James Greene said.

South’s slim 52-50 margin heading into the final quarter vanished when Jenna Toffaletti drained a 3. The Raiders went ahead one final time, on a Yost jumper with 5:30 remaining, but Shelman nailed a 3 and Toffaletti added her fifth trey of the night. The Pirates then hit 11 of 16 free throws in the quarter to seal it.

“I think the difference was the seniors they have,”Greene said. “We played a good ballgame for three quarters, then their seniors basically stepped up and refused to let them lose.”

Riverside got off to a slow start. The team bus actually had to stop outside of Greensboro to fix a tire, but the Pirates arrived in Landis in time because they ate during the unplanned pitstop instead of later in the trip.

Once the opening tip went up, South rolled. Rucker scored five seconds into the game and the Raiders quickly built leads of 6-0 and 21-14.

“We surprised ourselves with how intense we came out,”said Yost, who added that the hot start further fueled the fire. “That really boosted us tremendously.”

Riverside settled down, however, getting a pair of 3s from Toffaletti and Shelman to eventually grab the lead in the second quarter. And while South did block its share of shots, Durham didn’t back down. Rodgers scored 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds battling the Raiders in the post.

“The girls were patient, they weren’t forcing too many 3s,”Chambers said. “I told them they had to take it inside.”

For the game, Riverside made just 8 of 27 attempts from long range, but got the ones that counted most. South shot the ball well from the field, hitting better than 50 percent before the final quarter, but came up just short in the end.

“They’re young kids,”Greene said. “We’ve got to go to work this summer and we’ll be back. I don’t think anybody expected us to be here, to get this far. We’ll come back strong.”

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NOTES: In a scene that proved boys and girls aren’t so different after all, the Pirate players and cheerleaders swarmed and squealed with glee when South officials delivered postgame pizzas and sodas for the ride home. … Riverside’s win didn’t rest solely with the seniors. Toffaletti earned Pac-6 Player of the Year honors last season — as a sophomore. … Yost and Erica Brown are the only seniors South loses.

durham riverside (76) — Toffaletti 18, Wilcox 1, Pomeroy 2, Dillard 3, Nixon 14, Shelman 19, Colclough 4, Rodgers 15, Derrick, Gereffi, Roycroff, Jackson, Miller.

South rowan (61) — Yost 9, Mack 2, Jordan 13, Willett 9, Blackwood 12, Rucker 16, Durant, Parker, Jacobs, Russell, Littlejohn.

Riverside 17 21 12 26 — 76

SouthRowan 21 15 16 9 — 61

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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4256 or shanf@salisburypost.com .