Salisbury girls 53, East Lincoln 36

Salisbury High School and East Lincoln. Salisbury's Bubbles Phifer (5) drives on East Lincoln's Kiara Bailey (11). Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Salisbury High School and East Lincoln. Salisbury's Olivia Rankin (21) and East Lincoln's Kyndel Davis (25). Photo by Jon C. lakey, Salisbury post.

By David Shaw

dshaw@salisburypost.com

East Lincoln found out Wednesday night what the rest of the state already knows.

Twenty-four straight victories turned 25 when Salisbury's unbeaten girls thrashed the visiting Mustangs 53-36 in the second round of the 2A playoffs.

"They are very well-coached, fundamentally sound and very skilled," East assistant coach Susan Boggett said after the Mustangs finished 23-6.

"I can see them repeating as state champs. If they play like they did tonight, they'll be hard to beat."

Boggett was subbing for head coach Franklin Lowery, who left midway through the second quarter to attend a church anniversary back in Denver.

He didn't miss much. By game's end, this became another thanks-for-coming, arrive-home-safely win for SHS.

"It turned out like that," said winning coach Andrew Mitchell. "But really, we didn't know what to expect. We knew they had a good record and some good players. But we came into the game with absolutely no idea of what they might do. And, to be honest, I was tensing up during the day today."

He wasn't the only one.

Senior guard Bubbles Phifer made a similar confession after Salisbury advanced to Friday's sectional final at Winston-Salem Carver (22-4).

"I've been nervous all day," Phifer said after scoring 11 ponts and making two steals. "No one really knew what this team was going to come out with."

East came out with a muscular inside game fueled by 6-foot-1 center Lindsy Wright, a bubble-popping senior committed to Wake Forest. Her three-point play gave the Mustangs a 5-2 lead before Ayanna Holmes knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the score. It was still a 9-9 game when teammate East's Kiandra Long measured a set shot and converted from just beyond the foul line.

"They were ready to play," Salisbury's Ashia Holmes said. "We were doing everything we could. But they kept getting the ball down low and (Wright) was scoring."

Wright finished with a game-high 19 points and was clearly the best finisher on the floor.

"We had film on them from last year when we played them," Mitchell said, a reference to Salisbury's 93-30 first-round playoff win a year ago. "And I talked to some other people and got scouting reports. We knew her tendencies. Our main thing was to front her and play help-side defense. If we got caught behind we always had one girl on one of her hips and another coming to her other hip. That was the game plan."

So was this: Salisbury scored the last 10 points of the first quarter — half of them by junior Olivia Rankin — and surged to a 19-9 lead. Once again a swarming defense wreaked havoc, forcing nine East Lincoln turnovers in the opening period.

"We started off the game with confidence," Boggett said. "We started off strong. But then they starting causing us to play up-tempo, and we're not an up-tempo team."

Phifer's second field goal came on a fastbreak following a steal in the East end and gave Salisbury a nine-point lead late in the quarter.

"That was just us getting into a rhythm," she said. "We sped the game up and started playing our game."

The knockout punch came early in the second period when junior reserve Isis Miller scored six consecutive points — the last two when she snared an offensive rebound and hit an off-balance bank shot from inside the lane — to provide a 25-11 lead.

Miller totaled eight points and four offensive rebounds.

"Isis has been coming around slowly," Mitchell said. "We felt like she would. She got a few more minutes tonight — and she's been telling me the more minutes she gets the better she's gonna be."

Salisbury built its widest lead when Phifer hit back-to-back baskets midway through the fourth quarter to make it 49-25.

"It was a different kind of game," Phifer said. "More intense, more pressure. They made us play harder than we've been playing."

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NOTES: Rankin finished with 11 points and six rebounds. Jessica Heilig had seven rebounds and six steals. Tori Woods missed the game with an illness. ... Salisbury must hit the road because the PAC-6 has seeding priority over the CCC. ... The Hornets spent Tuesday night watching some of the CIAA tournament in Charlotte. ... Mitchell, a former Catawba standout, renewed his friendship with Lowery, a former Belmont-Abbey assistant.

EAST Lincoln (36) — Wright 19, Long 8, Forney 6, Messemer 2, Davis 1.

salisbury (53) — Phifer 11, Rankin 11, Miller 8, Heilig 7, Ay.Holmes 7, As.Holmes 4, Allison 2, Feamster 2, Richardson 1, Young, Lebowitz.

E. Lincoln 9 4 8 15 — 36

Salisbury 19 9 15 10 — 53