OLIN — Toni Wheeler said West Rowan’s girls just worried about themselves,
not North Iredell.
But when your opponent stands atop the league
standings with an undefeated record, any loss it suffers can be beneficial.
The Falcons climbed back into the hunt for one of
the three North Piedmont Conference playoff spots with a 54-40 win against the
Raiders on Tuesday.
West (12-4, 3-2 in the NPC) stands tied for third
with A.L. Brown, and North Iredell (12-3, 5-1) can start looking in its
rear-view mirror again.
“We were just thinking about ourselves,”
Wheeler said.“We knew to stay in the race we had to win this ball game. We
came out with that state of mind and tried to settle down.”
Said senior Natalie Jones, “This team didn’t
need to be undefeated, and we were coming to prove it.”
Hillary Hampton, who scored a game-high 19 points
for West, made her first field goal to put the Falcons ahead 6-4 with 2:31 left
in the first quarter. The Raiders never forged a tie after Hampton’s basket.
West led 37-29 going into the fourth quarter, and
the Falcons hit 13 of 18 free throws in the final eight minutes to seal the win.
“We came in thinking only ourselves and our
coaches had confidence in us,” said Hampton, who hit 7 of 10 from the line in
the fourth.
“We didn’t think anybody in the stands had
any confidence in us, but we came out and played our game.”
The Raiders had their best chance to make a late
run after Jessica Stroud, who was scoreless in the first three quarters, hit her
third 3-pointer of the period to cut West’s lead to 47-40.
But Stroud’s shots were the only ones that
regularly found their marks in the fourth quarter. The rest of the team went 1
for 8 in the fourth.
The Raiders missed 19 of their first 20 shots to
open the game, and they committed 23 turnovers.
Jones scored eight points and had seven rebounds
for West, while Jacqueline White scored seven points.
The NPC fun is just beginning.
“On any given night, any team can win. It’s
just who wants to win,”Hampton said. “Our conference is really close. Even
teams they say should get blown out are surprising people. Every night you’re
going to have to come out ready to play or you’re going to get surprised.”
Just ask North Iredell.
WESTROWAN (54) — Hampton 19, Jones 8, White 7,
Hartsell 6, Lewis 6, Harkey 4, Massey 2, Roberson 2, Gay, Charleston.
NORTHIREDELL (40) — Johnson 11, Stroud 9, Odom
6, Umbarger 4, Privette 3, Compton 3, Gaither 2, Odem 2, Houston.
West Rowan 9 12 16 17 — 54
North Iredell 4 15 10 11 — 40
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Contact Bret Strelow at 704-797-4258 or bstrelow@salisburypost.com
.
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