By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

THOMASVILLE — East Davidson senior Bayley Plummer broke the state record for career rebounds when she grabbed her 1,554th, and North Rowan’s shooters provided plenty of opportunities for the 6-foot-2 senior to pull down missed shots.
North didn’t put the ball in the hole very often in Friday’s Central Carolina Conference showdown and lost to East Davidson, 45-28.
It was the fewest points scored by the North girls since an 89-24 loss to Salisbury in the 2010-11 season.
“We did play extremely well defensively, but we played really tight on offense early,” East Davidson coach Don Corry said. “We respect North Rowan as a pretty good ball club, but we played that first quarter like we were scared, and that shouldn’t happen. We never got into any kind of offensive flow.”
East Davidson has won six of seven meetings in the three seasons since North returned to the CCC from the 1A ranks.
Like the first meeting of the teams in Spencer (a 66-52 East Davidson victory), the final score reflected neither the closeness nor the intensity of the game.
Second-ranked East Davidson (21-0, 8-0 CCC) opened with the same 3-2 zone that worked against North in January, but the Cavaliers (14-6, 6-2 CCC) were well-prepared and dissected that zone with patience and penetration.
“That’s what we’ve been working on,” North coach Brian Lytton said. “Penetrate and find the open man. Especially in the first quarter, we executed our game plan.”
Senior Aliyah Farmer was awesome early. She scored North’s first 10 points.
“Aliyah came out so strong because she really wanted to beat them,” North guard Payton Russell said. “She’d never won against East Davidson here. She wanted to win bad. We all did.”
When Special Washington penetrated and found Brianna White for a layup, North finished the first quarter with a 12-10 lead.
“We got a little crazy in that first quarter,” said East Davidson’s Catawba-bound point guard Madi Hallman. “North’s a tough team, and we were rushing our shots.”
East Davidson dominated the second quarter, 15-4, primarily because of North’s foul issues. Farmer and guard Tre Allen picked up their second fouls. They sat the majority of the quarter, and North suffered offensively and with increased turnovers.
“The 3-2 worked so well the first time we played North, but switching from the 3-2 to man-to-man was good for us tonight,” Hallman said. “We played very good man-to-man, and then we made a couple of big shots.”
Washington’s three-point play gave North a 16-13 lead, but East Davidson finished the first half with a 12-0 run that proved decisive.
“We started the game just like we planned and we never stopped fighting hard,” North forward Brianna White said. “But then they got on a run and we couldn’t stop them.”
Hallman made a 3-pointer during the pivotal flurry, and Bailey Grimsley added back-to-back buckets for a 25-16 halftime lead.
“They made a good adjustment and took away our first option when we penetrated,” Lytton said. “We kept trying to make that extra pass instead of putting up the shot. Maybe we should’ve just taken the shot, but I can live with us being too unselfish.”
North had plenty of chances to make a third-quarter charge as East Davidson missed or turned the ball over repeatedly.
“They weren’t scoring, but neither were we,” Lytton said. “We got a lot of stops, just not enough.”
Washington hit a 3-pointer to get the Cavaliers within 25-21, but when Plummer dropped in a sweet, lefty baby-hook, East Davidson ended the third quarter with a 31-25 lead.
Farmer scored to open the fourth quarter, but Brooke Anders made a huge 3-pointer for the Golden Eagles from the right side for a 34-27 lead with 4:05 remaining. It was her only connection of the night, but it was the biggest shot of the game.
“We stepped up and played when we needed to and we made key shots,” Corry said. “And we weren’t giving them transition points off turnovers. If we don’t give them easy points, I don’t think they can beat us.”
The killer sequence for North came 20 seconds later after Anders’ 3-pointer. Farmer swooped down the lane on a drive, looking to cut East Davidson’s lead to five, but Hallman stole the ball and headed for the other end. Hallman was fouled and made her first free throw. She missed her second free throw, but Plummer was right there to stick it back in, and East Davidson led, 37-27.
North couldn’t score down the stretch as fouls mounted.
“It was a hard game,” Russell said. “At times we just moving too fast and we didn’t stop to think.”
East Davidson made confident free throws to pull away. Plummer fouled out in the final seconds, but it didn’t matter at that point.
“After that bad first quarter, we played our game,” Hallman said.
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NOTES: Farmer led North with 14 points, while Plummer had 12 and Hallman 11 for the Golden Eagles. … Plummer has been named to play in the NC-SC All-Star Game. … Washington was held to six points by East Davidson defender Kendall Simmons. Washington has 994 for her career. … East Davidson essentially clinched an outright league title and owns a two-game lead on North with two to play. … North Rowan is likely to get a third shot at East Davidson in the CCC tournament. “First, we’ve got to finish the season out and beat the people we’re supposed to beat,” Lytton said. “If we do get to play them again, it’s hard to beat a good team three times, and I think we’re pretty good.”

NORTH ROWAN (28) — Farmer 14, White 7, Washington 6, Allen 1, Russell, Godfrey, Oglesby, Robinson.
EAST DAVIDSON (45) — Plummer 14, Hallman 11, Grimsley 6, Simmons 6, Lookabill 5, Anders 3.

North Rowan 12 4 9 3 — 28
East Davidson 10 15 6 14 — 45