Northwest senior Kristin Waffle, who will play at Catawba College next season, scored 23 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and went 7-for-8 from the foul line in the fourth quarter as the Trojans upset West Rowan 53-43 in a key South Piedmont Conference contest.

It was sweet revenge for the Trojans (5-1, 2-1 SPC), who had been flattened 71-27 and whipped 53-44 by the Falcons (5-2, 2-1) last season.

“Northwest played a great game and we were flat,” said West coach Angie Waddell. “No excuses, but it was pretty obvious that we had tired legs tonight.”

West did indeed looked zapped after huge county wins over East (Tuesday) and North (Wednesday) earlier in the week. West never could get rolling on one of its trademark spurts and was a half-step slow every time it needed a defensive stand. The Falcons shot a sluggish 28 percent. They forced 26 Northwest turnovers, which usually means lots of layups. But on this night, they turned a very small percentage of their fastbreak opportunities into points.

Northwest got control of the game in the second quarter when the Falcon defense lost track of the 5-8 Waffle and she swished consecutive 3-point shots. West, which was trailing by only three and trading baskets when Waffle got loose, suddenly was down 22-13.

“I hadn’t done much up until then,” said Waffle, “so I think they backed off me a little bit.”

Lesson learned.

“We just didn’t do what we were supposed to do on Waffle,” said Waddell. “We know what she can do.”

Waddell rotated guard Kari Schenk and forward Kate Goodman (who used to be Waffle’s classmate at Northwest), both outstanding defenders, on Waffle in the Falcons’ man-to-man defense. For long stretches they did well. Waffle got off only one shot in the third quarter and only two in the first. But in the fourth quarter, she came up big for 11 points.

“West is a great team, very aggressive and quick,” Waffle said. “What you have to do against them is not rush. You have to play smart and pass the ball to open teammates. You can’t let them rattle you.”

Sara Pieper’s outside shooting kept West within rattling distance most of he game. Pieper scored 16, one point fewer than her career high.

Many fans thought Northwest would fold when Schenk hit a 3-pointer midway through the fourth quarter to cut the Trojans’ lead to 35-33. But Waffle made two foul shots and Erin Cobb made a layup to push the lead back to 39-33.

Pieper nailed a 3 with 2:29 left, but once again Northwest calmly withstood the storm when Waffle powered in an offensive rebound to make it 44-39.

The final nail for the Falcons came when Goodman, who gives West much of its intensity, fouled out with 1:25 to go.

After that, it was just a matter of making free throws and the Trojan girls performed that task like a whole team of Scooter Sherrills. Northwest was 17-for-24 at the line in the final quarter and with each charity toss that dropped through the net, Trojan coach Scott Burleson breathed a little easier.

“Our whole team stepped it up a couple of notches,” said Burleson, whose team is now smack in the middle of the race for the league championship. “We carried out our game plan. We knew we had to be patient and we were. We took great shots — nothing but layups and short jumpers. And we never stopped believing for a second that we were going to get it done.”

NW CABARRUS (53) —Volpicelli 7, Archey 7, Waller 1, Waffle 23, Edwards 8, Cobb 5, Baumgardner 2.

WEST ROWAN (43) — Schenk 13, Pieper 16, McNeely 4, Wansley 1, Goodman 9, Scearce, Sloop, Shaver, Honeycutt.

NW Cabarrus 13 9 10 21 — 53