Coach Gary Atwell’s quick and athletic North Rowan team stunned East Rowan 76-53 at the East gym in a non-conference game that was expected to be close.

Atwell wasn’t sure if he wanted his girls to be the No. 1 seed for the Sam Moir Christmas Classic next week, but the Cavs didn’t give him much choice.

“I like playing one of the early games on the first night, because that floor (Catawba College’s Goodman Gym) is so hard to play on,” said Atwell.

Teams often have trouble shooting on the larger college court with a spacious background behind the goals when they play their first tournament game.

“But it’s awfully nice to be the first seed, because that means you’ve got the best record in the county,” said Atwell.

North’s record is now 5-2 for a percentage of .714, while second-seeded West Rowan and third-seeded East Rowan are each 7-3 for a .700 percentage. West drew the No. 2 seed because it defeated East Rowan earlier. East would have been the No. 1 seed had it won Monday.

“That’s the best team we’ve played this year right there,” said East coach Randy Bingham, who served as Atwell’s assistant two years ago. “You can tell they’ve come a long way.”

East had defeated North 52-43 at North in the Cavaliers’ season opener on Nov. 23.

“We got after them pretty good,” said Atwell. “We played with a lot of intensity, a lot of emotion. We were embarrassed by the way we played the first game this year. ... We talked about playing our type of basketball, making sure we got it into the (fast) tempo that we wanted, and to play with a lot of intensity on defense and not let them beat us on the boards. I thought we did a good job with all that tonight. I couldn’t ask for them to play any better than they played tonight.”

“It was a big rivalry for us, a big game,” said LaTasha Pharr, North’s junior forward who scored a career-high 20 points. “They kind of embarrassed us in the first game. We wanted to show them that we can play too. We went in with a level head and played hard.”

The Cavs outshot East on field goals and at the foul line and dominated under the boards (46-29), especially in the second half.

The holiday tourney starts Dec. 28, and Atwell tried to get his players in a tournament frame of mind last night.

“I talked to them about getting to the point where, when you play three nights in a row, you’ve got to be up every night you play. They’ve got to get the right mentality to play in the conference and the sectional tournament. I said, ‘Our Christmas tournament starts tonight with our intensity.’”

Forward Megan Honeycutt definitely played with intensity, finishing with a double-double of 21 points and 15 rebounds. The 5-10 senior added five assists and several steals.

Pharr, a quick junior track and field All-American who is playing her first season of varsity basketball, had her sixth double-figure game while shooting 9-for-16 from the floor and 2-for-5 on free throws. She improved her season average to 14.0.

“Points to me really doesn’t matter. As long as I’ve got my rebounds, I’m happy,” said Pharr. “I hustled more than I usually do.”

North got off to a fast start mainly because it was able to beat East’s 1-3-1 zone press with the hustling Pharr on the receiving end of teammates’ passes. She scored 11 of her points in the opening period as North took a 21-19 lead.

It was still close at 25-all in the second quarter, then the Cavaliers broke it open, leading by 15 twice in the second period and taking a 44-31 halftime lead. The advantage reached 26 late.

“We played their tempo when we played at our place,” said Atwell. “They’re going to slow it down and move it around until Brooke (Misenheimer) and Nicole (Loggins) get a good shot. We sort of took them out of that a little bit. We got them running, and that’s not their style that they want to play.”

Loggins, often a slow starter, came on strong in the second half and scored 21 points, including six 3-pointers. Point guard Misenheimer, who matched her career high of 11 assists, tried only four field goals and went scoreless.

“Our girls haven’t played near to their capabilities all year. I’m just hoping it’s going to turn around,” said Bingham.

East’s record was similar, 6-2 last year, at this point. The Mustangs won the Christmas tourney and went on to finish 26-4.

n

NOTES: North was 27-for-67 (40.3 percent) on field goals and 20-for-34 at the foul line, while East went 19-for-56 (33.9) from the floor and 7-for-17 on free throws. ... Each team limited turnovers, with North losing the ball 12 times and East 11. ... Latoya Tucker and reserve Amber Hill each had seven rebounds for the winners. Tucker also scored 12 points.

NORTH ROWAN (76) — Honeycutt 21, Pharr 20, C. Hill 6, Tucker 12, Hipps 4, Dunn 1, Bowie, A. Hill 5, Witherspoon 7.

EAST ROWAN (53) — Williams 15, Loggins 21, Morgan 5, Misenheimer, Poole, Haynes, Alexander, Rich 10, Roberts 2, Goodnight, Shaw, Ivey.

North Rowan 21 23 19 13 — 76