Prep Basketball: West Rowan girls 58, West Iredell 48

By Jordan Honeycutt

sports@salisburypost.com

STATESVILLE — West Rowan’s Shay Steele finally snatched control of the game Wednesday, scoring 15 in the final quarter of a 58-48 win.

Steele, along with Nycieko Dixon didn’t start the game, but the talented center made sure she finished it.

Steele was saddled with four fouls the entire fourth quarter and stayed scarce of the paint on defense to ensure her availability in the clutch.

“The game was crazy with all of the physicality and fouls but we just had to fight through it and stay together as a team,” Steele said. “I just tried to stand up straight and not make a stupid foul on defense at the end. Offensively, they started to press us in the fourth quarter and I just saw open lanes and drove to the rim.”

Aiding Steele in victory were Brittney Barber with nine points and Quanice Miller’s seven.

The Warriors of West Iredell didn’t let the Falcons have it easy––as stellar defense and 21 points from freshman phenom Elizabeth Webb forced Steele’s heroics.

“It was the best cagefight I’ve ever been in,” West Rowan coach Todd McNeely said in reference to the physical play. “It is hard to get going in a foul-cluttered game like that and luckily we were able to break their press and get easy layups in the end.”

The victory wrapped up third place in the NPC for the Falcons and they will likely play these same Warriors in the first round of the conference tournament next week.

“It seems like we play them every year and we’d like to play somebody else for a change,” West Iredell coach Phil Fox scoffed. “Both teams played really hard tonight and I am proud of the effort on Senior Night. It’s just bad that it wasn’t a prettier-played game than what it was.”

The game saw a whopping total of 50 personal fouls.

“We will just try now to get our rhythm and control back and push forward into next week’s tournament and the playoffs,” McNeely said.

WEST ROWAN (58) — Steele 26, Barber 9, Miller 7, Dixon 4, James 4, Sobotaka 4, Dutton 2, Hunter 2, Ramsue 2, Cross, Landy.

WEST IREDELL (48) — Webb 21, Ellis 10, Gaines 6, Coleman 4, Bolick 3, Dagenhart 3, Frye 1, Feimster

W. Rowan 12 08 20 18 — 58

W. Iredell 11 08 12 17 — 48