Prep Basketball: North Iredell girls 43, East Rowan 28

By Brian Meadows

sports@salisburypost.com

OLIN — There was no bracket busting Monday at North Iredell.

East Rowan’s Sydney Poole drilled three 3-pointers but the Mustangs had little offense in a 43-28 loss.

The Raiders, seeded third in the Midwest, built a 22-point halftime lead and coasted to a 43-28 win over No. 14 seed East Rowan in the first round of the 3A sectionals.

The manner in which they crossed the finish line left something to be desired, though.

Brooke Redmond’s two free throws with 58 seconds left were North Iredell’s only points in the fourth quarter.

“The first half, we got after it and we were knocking down a lot more shots,” North Iredell coach Tami Ramsey said. “The second half, we weren’t hitting our shots and on top of that our defense was lacking, as far as communicating who we had and not being in helpside when we needed to be there. It was just little things that we don’t normally do.”

Their shortcomings weren’t enough for East Rowan to come back.

Bri Johnson scored 11 of her game-best 14 points in the first half as the Raiders took control with a 30-8 lead.

Redmond supplied 12 points, and the junior pulled down 21 rebounds.

East Rowan turned the ball over 14 times, was outrebounded 29-12 and connected on 3 of 22 shots in the opening 16 minutes.

Ramsey didn’t like the decision making of her Raiders.

“I don’t know. It was like they were in a hurry all night.”

Poole’s nine points paced East Rowan (8-16), which finished fourth in the North Piedmont Conference. Karleigh Wike added eight points and 14 rebounds.

Danielle Porter’s Mustangs return a good nucleus next season, led by last night’s top scorers Poole and Wike.

EAST ROWAN (00) — Poole 9, Wike 8, L. Thomas 3, Fry 3, Sides 2, Gullett 2, Fisher, Lowe.

NORTH IREDELL (00) — B. Johnson 14, Redmond 12, Cartner 7, M. Johnson 5, Lunsford 4, Robbins 1..

E. Rowan 6 2 13 7 — 28

N. Iredell 19 11 11 2 — 43