Northwest’s latest victim was East Rowan in a huge 3A South Piedmont Conference matchup at the Northwest gym on Friday. The Trojans used their usual breakfast menu of a lot of grit and a little Waffle to hold off the slow-starting Mustangs 54-49.

Waffle, who has signed with Catawba, made four 3-pointers, scored 22 points and pulled down 14 rebounds to provide the inspiration. Her teammates provided the perspiration, playing frustratingly physical man-to-man defense, sticking in an occasional layup and getting the ball to Waffle whenever the Trojans absolutely had to have a basket.

Northwest (7-1, 4-1) is now in second place in the SPC and is a single bucket (they lost to league-leading Central Cabarrus by one point) from being unbeaten. East fell to 7-2, 3-2.

“We played great defense all night,” said Northwest coach Scott Burleson. “We’ve got pride in our defense. It kept us in the game when our offense wasn’t going so well.”

Neither team had any offense to speak of in the early going. Both Burleson and East coach Randy Bingham scratched their heads as their squads struggled. East scored a single point in the first five minutes. Northwest didn’t scratch at all until Waffle got a friendly roll on a 3-pointer at the 3:08 mark.

“We just weren’t in the groove the whole first half,” said East point guard Brooke Misenheimer. “It was really frustrating. We missed easy shots and we didn’t box out.”

The game didn’t get any prettier for either side the rest of the first half. Northwest staggered to the locker room with a 24-18 lead.

“I told the girls at halftime that they should either be up by 30 or down by 30,” said Bingham. “Neither team had played well. We felt fortunate to still be in the game.”

Both teams played better in the second half. Northwest jumped ahead by 10 in the third quarter on a Waffle offensive board, but when the Trojans briefly tried a zone defense, East’s Tiffany Poole, who scored 11, banged in two straight 3-pointers to get East back in the game.

“Poole showed some senior leadership out there,” said Bingham. “She gave us a big lift when we needed offense. Her 3s got us back in it.”

East actually took a one-point lead with 4:21 remaining in the game after a Nicole Loggins 3-pointer and an Emily Rich jumper, but Waffle responded with an acrobatic 3 from flat on her back on the left wing to put her team back ahead to stay at 42-40.

It was 42-41 after East’s Stephanie Morgan made a free throw. At 4:01, Burleson called for time.

He must have said something inspirational, because immediately out of the timeout, guard Courtney Edwards, who shoots rarely, nailed a 3. Then after East misfired, Waffle sank another 3 and the Trojans were in control at 48-41.

“Someone had to step up at that time,” said Waffle. “I started moving better to try to get open and my teammates got the ball to me.”

The stretch run was pure frustration for East. Lora Williams, who had an amazing 19 rebounds (nine in the fourth quarter), Morgan and Rich kept hustling and kept getting offensive boards, but couldn’t get anything to drop.

“We must have missed 3,000 shots inside,” sighed Bingham.

Waffle converted one-and-one free throws with 40 seconds left to make it 52-45 but East still wouldn’t die. Misenheimer made a free throw and Loggins, who scored 15, bombed in a 3 with nine seconds left to make it 52-49.

But then Jenny Volpicelli made two huge free throws to ice the Trojans’ victory.

“When we’re at the line with a chance to win the game at the end, we like our chances,” said Burleson.

He should. Volpicelli was 6-for-6 on free throws and the Trojans were 15-for-22. When it upset West Rowan earlier in the week, Northwest had a run of 17-for-24 on free throws.

“This was a loss that was just heartbreaking,” said Misenheimer. “We know we can beat them.”

“You hate to lose anytime, but you don’t mind losing so bad if you play pretty good,” said Bingham. “We played hard, but we just stunk it up in the first half. We’ve got to figure out how to get off to a better start.”

EAST (49) — Loggins 15, Rich 4, Misenheimer 13, Roberts, Morgan 3, Williams 3, Poole 11, Haynes.

NW CABARRUS (54) — Waffle 22, Damewood 4, Archey, Edwards 5, Volpicelli 10, Cobb 6, Baumgardner 5, Turnblom 2.

East 5 13 12 19 — 49