Prep Basketball: North Moore 60, North Rowan 54

By Ryan Bisesi

rbisesi@salisburypost.com

ROBBINS — North Rowan’s girls had a long ride back to Spencer Friday night after a tough loss to North Moore.

Now their goal is make it a shorter ride back Monday.

The Cavs fell 60-54 to North Moore in the regular season finale and will travel back there for the first round of the Yadkin Valley Conference tournament Monday night at 6.

North Rowan trailed 33-22 to halftime and cut its deficit to 45-43 in the third quarter, but got no closer. It was almost a repeat of the first meeting where the Cavs rallied from an 18-point deficit to win. This time, North Moore hung on by hitting its free throws late. Jessie Sheffield was 6 of 6 from the line in the final quarter.

“Turnovers, free throws and missed layups were the way we lost tonight,” NR coach Tony Hillian said. “The girls did give me a valiant effort.”

Teaunna Cuthbertson worked around foul trouble and scored a game-high 14 points for the Cavs. NM led 43-27 before Cuthbertson scored seven straight points to cut it to 43-34. Sabrina Vann’s putback made it 45-43 with 4:29 left to play and forced NM to call timeout.

Sheffield got fouled and hit two free throws and Tiosha McCaskill got fouled while nailing a jumper to give the Mustangs a momentum boost.

“I told my team if you lose tonight, I’m not getting on the bus with you Monday when you go up there,” North Moore coach Sammy McNeil said. “But they kept it together and played well, so I was proud of them.”

NM led 11-9 after one quarter before Sheffield nailed a 3 and Brower got a steal and layup just seconds apart. The Mustangs pushed their lead to double digits on Ashley Giles’ basket at 23-13.

“We stayed in the game and fought,” Hillian said.

NR got as close as 56-52 and 58-54 in the final minute.

Vann finished with 10 points. Anna Lingle hit some big shots in the first half and finished with nine points.

•

NOTE: The Mustangs were led by McCaskill’s 13 points and Shakorya Brower’s 12 points.

NORTH ROWAN (54) — Cuthbertson 14, Vann 10, Lingle 9, Brown 8, Sells 6, Robbinson 5, Carter 1, Bradley 1.

NORTH MOORE (60) — McCaskill 13, Brower 12, Sheffield 11, Horn 9, Dunmyer 6, Giles 5, Love 4, Turner, Williams.

N. Rowan 9 13 12 20 — 54

N. Moore 11 22 12 15 — 60