SPENCER — West Rowan’s girls gulped down their second tasty helping of road
revenge in two nights with a 47-43 win at North Rowan on Wednesday.West, which had avenged five straight losses to East Rowan
with a romp in Granite Quarry on Tuesday made it back-to-back paybacks by nipping the
Cavaliers in Spencer. North (2-2) had ripped West (5-1) eight days earlier in Mt. Ulla.
In fact, that was North’s last action prior
to last night.
“That’s what surprised me,” said
North coach Gary Atwell. “The week layoff seemed to hurt us more than it hurt West
having to play back to back. They looked a little tired in the second quarter, but we
couldn’t take advantage.”
West did look fatigued in a five-point second
quarter, but still had enough life in its legs to go 8-for-10 from the line in the fourth
quarter. That deadly free throw accuracy was enough to finally silence a raucous crowd in
a packed North gym.
So far the road has been the only place to be in
county girls games. The four biggest county games so far have all been won by visiting
teams. Besides West winning at North and North winning at West, East won at North and West
won at East. So much for the homecourt advantage.
This was the best county girls game so far this
season and was hotly-contested by what may prove to be the county’s top two teams.
Neither squad could forge a lead greater than five points all night.
“These two teams are just so even in
talent,” said Atwell. “We’re the same size and we’re very close in
speed. Maybe we jump a little higher, maybe they shoot a little better.”
The numbers were indeed close. West had two more
rebounds and made one fewer turnover than North. West shot 38 percent, while North shot 42
percent. West prevailed because it made two more 3s than the Cavs and hit four more foul
shots.
The lead changed hands eight times in the first
half alone, with two outstanding defenses dominating the action.
“We played good defense, but so did
they,” said Atwell. “Ordinarily, when we hold someone to 47 points, we can count
on a win.”
West, which held East to a shocking 27 points on
Tuesday, limited North star Megan Honeycutt to 10 points and only seven shots with a
sagging, double-teaming zone.
“They doubled Megan hard all night,”
said Atwell. “West did a great job to keep us from getting the ball in to her.”
Still, North managed a 20-18 halftime lead with
Tasha Pharr getting six points and seven rebounds before the break.
The tide turned toward West early in the second
half when Kristen McNeely hit two 3-pointers in a three-minute span. McNeely’s second
3 put West on top 26-24 with 3:53 left in the third quarter.
“We had sort of been waiting for someone to
catch fire,”said West coach Angie Waddell. “It happened to be Kristen.”
Still, North was far from done. The Cavs got even
again on a clutch 3 by Toya Tucker, then pushed in front for the final time at 34-33 on a
free throw by point guard Joyce Hipps with 5:45 left in the game. But Sara Pieper had a
flurry to put West ahead by two. Then with 3:01 on the clock, Kari Schenk sank a 3-pointer
from the top to give the Falcons their largest lead at 43-38.
“Kari’s shot was so big,” said
Atwell. “Before that, it was always a one-point or two-point game. That one changed
things.”
With 2:05 left and a two-point lead, Waddell had
her team spread the floor. The Falcons worked the ball down to the 1:27 mark, then Kate
Goodman drove the baseline, where she appeared to be fouled by Pharr. The whistle blew,
but somehow the foul was assessed against Hipps, an innocent bystander. It was a huge
call, because it was the fifth foul on the Cavs’ floor general.
“We had a hard time playing at the end
without Joyce,” said Atwell. “Amber Hill will eventually be able to do the
things that Joyce does, but right now she’s just a freshman.”
Goodman calmly made her two free throws to put
West up 45-41. But Honeycutt scored inside after a pass from Pharr to pull North within
45-43.
As the crowd went crazy, West turned the ball over
with 45 seconds left. That gave North a shot to tie, but Pharr’s jumper in the lane
with 16 seconds left wouldn’t fall and Pieper went high to claim the rebound. Pieper
was fouled seconds later and made both free throws to seal the win.
“I’m just so proud of the focus that we
had for this one,” said Waddell. “Lots of times when you win a game like we did
at East on Tuesday, you listen to all the congratulations and don’t think about the
next game. But we didn’t do that. When you play a team like North, you can’t do
that. They are really good and very hard to play.”
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