2A Girls Championship: Salisbury 49, East Bladen 37

Salisbury's Bubbles Phifer. Salisbury high school defeated East Bladen in the 2A State Championship at Reynolds Coliseum on the NC State University. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

By Mike London

mlondon@salisburypost.com

RALEIGH — Bubbles Phifer's pass off the dribble was a sweet no-look, but when Ashia Holmes converted the layup every Salisbury Hornet could see another state title was just around the corner.

It was only the third quarter, but the Hornets led by 16, and the discouraged looks on East Bladen faces spoke volumes. It was over.

Salisbury's girls repeated as 2A champions on Saturday afternoon. They did it with style. They did it with passion.

They did it with relative ease. The Reynolds Coliseum scoreboard said they beat previously unblemished East Bladen 49-37, but it wasn't anywhere near that close.

The frustrated Eagles may as well have been lying prone on an operating table. Salisbury's clawing, trapping, pressure-cooker defense surgically removed their heart. The Hornets led by 22 when coaches emptied their benches.

"Salisbury's whole team is good," said 6-foot-2 C.J. Melvin, East Bladen's classy go-to player. "Even the girls they brought off the bench were good. We couldn't box 'em out and our guards couldn't handle their pressure."

MVP Phifer scored 14, including the game's pivotal points, and Jessica Heilig ripped down 10 rebounds as the Hornets tied a pretty red ribbon around a dream.

Salisbury fans will recall that coach Andrew Mitchell wore a T-shirt saluting the school's undefeated 2004 club the first day of fall practice.

He announced right up front that the goal for 2009-10 was nothing less than perfection, but the bull's-eye the Hornets wore on the front of their jerseys from November to March was a boost, not a burden.

Salisbury didn't just win another state title — it was perfect. It ran the table. It went 29-0.

"And that makes it even better than last year," Heilig said with a grin. "It's just great for Salisbury to have another undefeated team. I was a little nervous when it started, but I'm always a little nervous. Then it goes away and you just play."

The Hornets just keep playing. They've won 35 straight dating back to last season and 49 out of 50.

The secret?

"Ladies who play hard and play tough," Mitchell said. "I'm blessed. I'm in a great situation to have players like this."

Salisbury's big concern was Melvin, a mini-mountain with soft hands and a velvet touch at the foul line. She was averaging 23 points a game.

Mitchell also had worries about Jazmine Kemp, a solid forward who has to do a lot of ballhandling for the Eagles.

East Bladen's guards aren't special, and that's where the Hornets destroyed the Eastern champs, forcing 24 turnovers and claiming every loose ball and every long rebound. Aside from Melvin and Kemp, the Eagles got only two points from their starters.

"It's all about guard play, and we could not handle Salisbury's guard play," East Bladen coach Patty Evers said. "We couldn't set a screen, couldn't run our offense. Salisbury wasn't better than we thought, but we didn't play as well as we've been playing. I'm not upset, but I'm disappointed."

Salisbury's Holmes twins, Ashia and Ayanna, were fantastic, competing with limitless energy. Ayanna, the point guard, pulled down nine rebounds on her way to Most Outstanding Player honors.

"Ayanna could score a lot of points in a different role, but she's sacrificed a lot of herself for this team's success," Mitchell said.

Salisbury struggled to make shots early. The 6-0 Heilig and 6-1 Olivia Rankin had countless opportunities in the paint in the first quarter, but they combined to shoot 0-for-10.

"We were rushing, rushing, rushing," Phifer said. "We just needed to calm down a little."

It stayed tense and tight into the second quarter, and Salisbury needed two buckets from reserve Doreen Richardson to cling to a 23-20 lead with 53 seconds left in the half. But that's when Phifer nailed a long jumper.

Then, three seconds before halftime, Phifer swished a long, arcing 3 from the left wing for a 28-20 halftime lead.

Big-time player. Big-time shot.

"That shot hurt us really bad," Melvin said.

It was the key bucket of the game because East Bladen wasn't the same team in the second half.

"What really hurt is that we knew exactly what play was coming from Salisbury and we knew who would be taking that shot," Evers said. "We still didn't get out on Phifer, and that shot just took the life out of us. We came out of the locker room for the second half like we didn't even want to be there."

The third quarter was a nightmare for East Bladen — 0-for-6 on field-goal attempts, plus eight turnovers. Salisbury, with Rankin and Heilig finally getting shots to drop, pulled away. Heilig had a driving and-one against Melvin for a 10-point lead that got the crowd into it, and the Hornets kept coming in waves.

Kemp made a jumper for East Bladen with 1:14 left in the second quarter, and Melvin sank a layup with 3:38 left to play. In between, the Eagles went 131/2 minutes without a field goal.

On one successful trap near midcourt that led to a break, it was SHS' big girls, Rankin and Heilig, doing the aggressive trapping.

Salisbury finished with an overwhelming rebounding edge — 22-7 on the offensive glass and 39-29 overall.

"Our guards rebound as hard as our post players," Mitchell said. "That rebounding was just about wanting that ball and wanting to win that last game of the year."

Salisbury shot only 31 percent, but the program is built on defense, and the defense and rebounding couldn't have been any better.

If Phifer doesn't make that tough 3 before halftime, maybe it's a completely different game, but she drilled it.

Fans stood and roared when Phifer came out with 3 seconds to go. Mitchell met her with an old-school high-five and a happy hug, and tears of perfection flowed.