GRANITE QUARRY — Practice makes some players perfect, but not East Rowan’s Cristal MacLamroc.
The senior guard has saved her best shooting for Mustang games this winter, including Friday’s back-and-forth 72-68 win over visiting Northwest Cabarrus.
“That’s a game-player right there,” coach Randy Bingham explained, throwing a glance MacLamroc’s way. “She doesn’t like to practice her shot much but she’s played some super ballgames for us. I don’t know what gets into her. You watch her in practice and she doesn’t have real good form, but in the games she drills it.”
In this game she dropped a career-high 19 points on Northwest as East (15-2 overall) improved to 5-1 and slid into first place in the North Piedmont Conference.
“Against hard teams like this, I just get more pumped up,” said MacLamroc, who clinched the victory by scoring the game’s final six points. “The excitement makes me play better. It’s not the same as in practice. You come out here and you want to do something special.”
MacLamroc burned the Trojans (9-8, 1-5 NPC) for five field goals, eight free throws and 13 second-half points. But nothing was bigger than the 3-pointer she nailed with 1:27 to play, a 25-foot rocket launched from the East bench area that gave the Mustangs a 69-68 lead.
“That shot, as soon as she let it go, I knew it was going in,” smiled teammate Maggie Rich. “And right then I knew we were going to win. We weren’t going to let a shot that pretty go to waste.”
It almost didn’t matter. Northwest played tug-of-war with the Mustangs, swapping the lead nine times before MacLamroc settled the argument. The visitors led 5-0 early and by 59-55 after Chrissy Killian stole the ball near midcourt and drove for a layup just one minute into the fourth quarter.
“It was a dogfight,” said Northwest coach Scott Burleson. “We took every punch East threw at us and gave one back.”
Perhaps, but NC had no answer for Rich’s sparkling effort. The 5-11 sophomore paced all scorers with 27 points, including 12 in the third quarter when the sharp-shooting Trojans refused to go away.
“I don’t know how I scored 27,” Rich said afterward. “I started slow the last couple games, but somehow, we always seem to come out on top.”
Even Bingham was scratching his head.
“It seemed like everything they threw up went in,” he said. “They must have shot 90 percent in the second half. We didn’t play great defense and normally we play better than that. But gosh knows you don’t expect them to make every shot. I don’t know how we stayed in the ballgame.”
Rich and MacLamroc, that’s how. Rich made six baskets in the third quarter, then converted a three-point play that put East ahead 55-54 early in the final period. Her last points came when she sank both ends of a one-and-one for a 64-61 East lead with 3:54 to go.
Northwest rallied to go in front 68-66 on a layup by Rose Florence with 1:36 remaining — then went scoreless the rest of the way. MacLamroc took it from the there, turning the vociferous crowd into a human trampoline. “Someone had to take that shot,” she said.
She added three free throws in the last 51 seconds to wrap it up.
“Cristal’s been a godsend ever since Haley (Shaw) got hurt,” said Bingham. “We’ve got the best of both worlds. Usually Cristal’s really tough on defense and Haley’s a little better on offense. But Cristal’s putting it all together right now.”
More importantly, she helped the Mustangs move a half-game ahead of North Iredell in the league standings.
“We couldn’t let this one get away,” said Rich. “Once you have a game won, you don’t ever want to give it back.”
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NOTES: Killiam made four 3-pointers in the second quarter and finished with a team-high 18 points.
NORTHWEST CABARRUS (68) — Killiam 18, Damewood 13, Florence 12, Archery 9, Benson 7, S.Morrison 5, A.Morrison 2, Wells 2.
EAST ROWAN (72) — Rich 27, MacLamroc 19, Kluttz 10, Huffman 9, Haynes 7, Ingold, Shaw.
Northwest 9 22 20 17 — 68
East Rowan 10 20 22 20 — 72
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