The prep basketball notebook …
It took teams a while, but they’ve finally figured out that playing a box-and-one defense on Maggie Rich allows the best shot at stopping the East Rowan girls.
But while hounding Rich with one defender and leaving the other four in a zone has worked at times, it’s also allowed other players to come up big.
The addition of senior Haley Shaw, who missed eight games with a torn ACL, means the Mustangs have a reliable shooter from long range. She’s had a high game of 11 points this year and added eight in East’s win over Statesville on Tuesday.
“Having ol’ Haley in there’s a great blessing,”East head coach Randy Bingham said. “Haley can bust some games open for us with her shooting.”
Christal MacLamroc also came up with a big contribution against the Hounds, scoring six of her nine points in the third quarter. Four points came courtesy a pair of steals.
“She’s always on fire on defense,”Bingham said. “Seems like every game she comes up with a big steal right at a crucial time in the game.”
MacLamroc’s contributions have been especially nice considering the senior entered the year with 25 points for her career. She’s hit double digits in six games this season and is averaging 7.9 per contest.
“She’s gotten a whole lot better this year,”Rich said.“She’s always been a great athlete, but I think this year we’ve just worked better together.”
As forRich facing that box-and-one every night, she’s now used to it and looks forward to finding new ways to beat it.
“I was getting a little worried at the beginning when they did the box-and-one on me, but then we ran a couple plays to get me open,”Rich said of the Statesville game. “It helps me as a player a bit more. If I’m going to play college ball, I know it’s going to be a lot tougher.”
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BELK’SOUT:Matt Belk, one of only two seniors on the East squad, will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL.
Belk was averaging 14.2 ppg, third in the county behind West’s Donte Minter and Salisbury’s Sharmari Spears. He was the only Mustang averaging in double figures and was leading the team in rebounds and blocked shots.
Belk first hurt the knee in East’s loss to West last Friday, then heard a pop when he tried to play against Statesville last Tuesday.
Belk, 6-foot-3, who had a 31-point outing against North Rowan in the Christmas Tournament, was drawing interest from several small colleges. He said he’ll have surgery next week and will miss four months of athletics.
That news is bad for East’s track team as well as its hoops squad. Belk was the county’s No. 3 high jumper last spring and was likely to earn points in the triple jump and relays in most meets, as well.
Raiders girls coach James Greene expects center Brittney Gaddy to miss the entire season. Gaddy tore an ACL over the summer, but she had hoped to play at least a portion of her senior year.
Runner-up in the Rowan County player of the year voting last season, Gaddy scored 886 points and stands as the No. 8 scorer in Raider history. Her injury will prevent her from becoming the seventh South girl to reach 1,000 points.
Gaddy will return to the court next season at UNC Pembroke.
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BIG NUMBERS: When Davie County’s boys beat South Rowan 103-70 on Friday, the Raiders set a record for the most points allowed by a South squad.
The Raiders’ previous defensive disaster was a 101-77 loss to the War Eagles in the 1999-2000 season.
South’s boys were on the wrong end of another record recently when they were blasted 94-36 by West Forsyth. The 58-point margin was the most lopsided loss in school history. The previous longest night for the Raiders was an 87-32 setback at the hands of 4A state champ R.J. Reynolds two seasons ago.
Boys coach Drew Mathews has discovered something during the first half of the Central Carolina Conference season.
Bigger is not better.
Until about two weeks ago, the Hornets were actually one of the burliest teams in the CCC. And then, Mathews noticed something.
“Everybody in this league has a 6-foot-4 center and four guards,” he said. “So we’re going with Sharmari (Spears) and four guards.
The strategy worked Tuesday night in a 52-44 win. The guards created havoc and Spears scored 27 as the Hornets (4-3 in the league) inched closer to one of four playoff berths.
North girls coach Mike White was not pleased with his Cavs, who took a step back in a 57-45 loss to East Davidson on Tuesday that was nowhere near as close as the final score. North was buried 14-2 early, and never got back in it.
White was confident his team had turned the corner when it broke through for its first win against West Iredell two weeks ago, but that hasn’t been the case. Three blowouts have followed that milestone win.
“OK, we won a ballgame,” said White. “But it’s time to get past that game now. We’ve got to find a way to move on and win some more.”
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BRIGHTSPOT:Junior forward Crystal Craige has carried the scoring load for North, especially with guard Moriah Jones, the team’s No. 2 scorer, battling everything from knee tendinitis to the deep bite she suffered in the East Davidson game.
Craige’s averaged 13.3 ppg in her last six outings, including an 18-point effort at West Stokes and a 20-point explosion at East Davidson.
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