NORWOOD — Nicole Loggins had a sore wrist but a hot hand, a combination that resulted
in a couple of career highs in the East Rowan girls’ 77-23 basketball romp over South
Stanly here Monday night.The 5-10 senior
scored a career-high 27 points, most of the total coming on a career-high seven
3-pointers.
Loggins had taken a fall against the padded wall
in the end zone after being intentionally fouled while shooting a layup in the closing
seconds of Friday’s home game with Harding. She hurt her right wrist and hipbone when
she fell.
“I went airborne from under the basket down
there. I think I hit every part of my body. My wrist: I caught it like this (awkward
position),” said Loggins. “I kind of strained a little tendon right here, but I
wrapped it up and it helped a little bit. I fought through it.”
Last night, with the wrist taped up, she started
out a little cold, going 2-for-8.
“It was hurting, and I could feel it pulling,
but I wasn’t going to give up. I figured it would come to me. I always start slow and
finally it will come to me,” she said.
It came to her in the second quarter, when she
made three straight 3-pointers followed by two other baskets.
She then hit two straight 3s to start the final
quarter for a streak of seven straight shots. She finished 10-for-19.
Loggins said of the 3s, “I think that’s
the most I ever made. Six has been my most.” She didn’t realize she was making
that many 3s. “I had no clue. Seriously, I thought I had at least four.”
The nonconference victory was the third in a row
for coach Randy Bingham’s Mustangs by a combined total of 99 points. East had downed
South Stanly 71-37 and Harding 71-59 on its home court last week.
Loggins would not have been in the Harding game in
the final minute had teammate Michelle Haynes not fouled out.
“Coach Bingham wasn’t going to put me in
that last minute, but I bugged him and bugged him. He’s mad at me, because I made him
put me in. Finally, Michelle fouled out, and I came in for her,” said Loggins.
“I thought she shot the ball better than
she’s probably shot it all year,” said Bingham.
The closing seconds didn’t work out well for
Bingham again last night.
He sent guard Tiffany Poole back into the game
late.
“I didn’t know she hadn’t scored.
The girls kept telling me that,” said Bingham.
Poole missed a 3-pointer, got the ball back and
tried to drive the baseline, where she was knocked out of bounds on a foul that
wasn’t called. Just as the buzzer sounded, a South Stanly player shoved Poole near
the East bench. Earlier, the same player had shoved East reserve Haley Shaw from behind.
“It looks like what I do at the end of every
game isn’t working,” he said.
Something that was working well all night was
East’s passing game, led by senior point guard Brooke Misenheimer with a career-high
11 assists.
“I think that’s a wonderful stat,”
said Bingham. “Brooke’s very unselfish. She’s almost too unselfish at
times. You have to coax her to shoot.” Misenheimer had five points plus seven steals.
East made 30 field goals, 21 of them set up by
assists.
“I think they’ve finally got a clue that
if they get it in the lane, they can dish it off and get some easy baskets. That pleased
me more than anything we did tonight,” said the East coach.
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