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East gets ‘Rich’ performance

BY ED DUPREE
SALISBURY POST

With junior forward Emily Rich scoring all 15 of her points in the second half, East bounced back from a struggling first half to knock off West Rowan 62-56 in the semifinals of the Sam Moir Christmas Classic at Catawba College’s Goodman Gym.

Third-seeded East (9-3), the defending champion, will take on top-seeded North Rowan (6-2), a 34-31 winner over Davie County last night, for the title at 5:45 p.m. today. It will be East’s 16th championship game, twice as many as any other school, but the Mustangs have only a 1-5 record in tournament finals in the 1990s.

Second-seeded West, now 7-4, had entered the contest as the favorite mainly because the Mustangs had lost to West 56-27 at East in a big South Piedmont Conference contest on Dec. 7, clearly East’s poorest showing so far.

It appeared West was well on its way to another victory over East by a similar margin when the Falcons led 34-21 at halftime.

Rich, who matched her career high, then shot East back into the ball game with a nine-point third quarter that included her first varsity 3-pointer ever. Inspired by Rich, the rest of the Mustangs caught fire down the stretch.

“Emily was on fire,” said East’s senior point guard, Brooke Misenheimer. “I think it was her best game by far. She was hitting everything, and we were glad, because we sure needed it.”

Rich, who agreed that her near double-double effort that included nine rebounds was her best game of the season, said, “I guess I was more confident, especially the second half. My dad’s been pumping some confidence in me, and coach Bingham and the team. I guess the confidence kicked in, and I started doing better.”

Father Curtis, originally from Graham, is a former Elon College basketball player.

With West’s defense concentrating on East’s two leading scorers, Loggins and Misenheimer, Rich got open often in the second half, when she was 7-for-15, a far cry from her 0-for-5 in the first half.

Rich and Bingham credited assistant coach Kelly Corl with getting the Mustangs thinking positively at halftime.

“Miss Corl said, ‘If anybody hangs their heads, then we’re going to lose.’ I was like, ‘I can’t hang my head. I’ve got to get back out there and play as hard as I can.’ Everybody pulled together and did good,” said Rich.

“Kelly Corl made a real good point at halftime that they were hanging their heads with about two minutes to go and were just about to get blown out again,” said Bingham.

East rallied to within three late in the third quarter, then went down 48-42 on a 3-pointer by Kristen McNeely of the Falcons early in the fourth. After that, East outscored West 20-8.

Seven of those points came on clutch free throw shooting (7-for-8) by Misenheimer in the final 1:57. With East holding a 57-56 lead, she made four foul shots in a row in the final 33 seconds to wrap it up.

“I was pretty confident about my free throws,” said the senior. “A lot of my shots weren’t falling. They were playing a triangle-and-two on us most of the game. That always makes it a lot harder on Nicole(Loggins) and me.”

Loggins, with nine of her 13 points in the second half, and Lora Williams with 12 joined Rich and Misenheimer in double figures.

“West probably had everything to lose and almost nothing to gain,” said Bingham. “I don’t think anybody in their right mind after watching us play against them last time would have certainly picked us to win except the coaches and the players.”

“We were fired up because we don’t feel like anybody has much respect for us just because we got beat by West and got beat by North (76-53 on Dec. 20) so bad. We got embarrassed. We came out here to prove a point, that we’re just as good a team as West,” said Misenheimer.

Coach Angie Waddell of West knew East would be up for the game after the lopsided game three weeks earlier.

“I knew they were coming after us hard. I think the girls knew that too,” she said. “At halftime we told them, ‘East is a pretty good team. They’re not going to roll over. They’re going to come at you extra hard.’”

Center Shameeka Wansley, forward Kate Goodman and guard Kari Schenk led West’s scoring with 15, 14 and 11 points, respectively. Goodman’s three 3-pointers in the first half plus the rebounding of Wansley and forward Sara Pieper propelled West to its halftime lead.

However, in the second half, West shot 29 percent on field goals, got outrebounded by three, committed 11 turnovers and lost starters Goodman and McNeely on fouls in the final 3:11.

Waddell questioned her team’s decision-making on passes. “I don’t know if we were conservative or tentative, maybe trying to take care of the ball too much, maybe not playing to win, just playing not to lose,” she said.

“We’ll just learn from it and keep learning from it,” she said.

As for his team’s second-half comeback, Bingham said, “Those girls went out there,I thought, with a mission in their mind. ... There’s a lot to be said for not ever giving up.”

NOTES: East was 23-for-60 (38.3 percent) from the floor, while West went 21-for-62 (33.9 percent). East had the edge at the foul line, going 14-for-23 to West’s 9-for-14. ... West had a 41-35 rebound advantage mainly because it dominated the boards in a strong second quarter. ... East had 15 turnovers to West’s 18. ... Starting center Stephanie Morgan of East sat out the game with a sprained ankle.

EAST ROWAN (62) — Williams 12, Rich 15, Roberts 6, Loggins 13, Misenheimer 14, Haynes 2.

WEST ROWAN(56) — Goodman 14, Pieper 4, Wansley 15, Schenk 11, McNeely 8, Sloop, Scearce 4, Honeycutt.

East Rowan 11 10 19 22 — 62

West Rowan 16 18 11 11 — 56