West Girls Trample Trojans

BY ED DUPREE
SALISBURY POST

ODELL - Kari Schenk and most of the members of the West Rowan girls basketball team hadn't forgotten their last trip to Northwest Cabarrus, so they were ready for the Lady Trojans, rolling to a 71-27 3A South Piedmont Conference victory here Wednesday night.

West's 51-45 loss at Northwest Cabarrus in the 11th conference game of the season last February was a big factor in the Lady Falcons missing out on the SPC championship by one game.

Coach Angie Waddell's West girls, 2-0 in the SPC and 3-1 overall, totally dominated last night's contest with their pressure defense from the start. West built up a 34-17 halftime lead, then held the Trojans to single figures in the second half until Northwest made a free throw late in the game.

Schenk, West's quick left-handed junior point guard, tormented Northwest's ballhandlers, coming up with nine steals, and scored a game-high 22 points. Two transfers, Sara Pieper (from Kannapolis A.L. Brown) and Kate Goodman (Northwest) were factors too - Pieper with 11 points and five steals and Goodman with nine points and four steals. Kristen McNeely scored eight for the winners.

Schenk remembered that West did not play one of its better games in the loss at Northwest last season, and knew the Lady Trojans would be fired up because Goodman, their player last year, was on the other side this time.

"We've got Kate, their player. She affected us a lot last year: She's so aggressive. This year we came down here and we knew they would be after us. We have their player. We just did our best and got through it," said Schenk.

West had a lot of returning players before Goodman and Pieper, a sophomore, transferred in last summer.

"I love playing with them," said Schenk. "Once they came down here, I knew I would like playing with them. They know what to do. They're not afraid to do anything, and they really get in there and hustle. They made a real impact on our team."

Waddell, whose team defeated Salisbury and Harding and lost to South Rowan (four points) before last night, was a little concerned about Northwest (2-1, 3-2).

"I guess I remember so well what happened last year, and I think some of the girls did too," she said.

"I was a little bit (concerned) for the simple reason that one of the players on our team obviously came from there. We weren't too sure how they were going to react. We thought they would come out hard against us." She added that she thought her team simply wore Northwest down. The Lady Trojans finished with 41 turnovers to West's 23.

"They broke our press, but I guess we were rushing them once they got the ball past halfcourt. ... If you can get a turnover anywhere, your press is being effective, and that's what we want," Waddell added.

"I thought everyone played extremely well all through the lineup, player one through player 12. Kari:

She was playing a normal game. Kari's Kari. She wants her team to win, and she's going to do everything in her power for her team to win. She plays her heart out," Waddell said.

The hustling guard took two hard falls during the game, hitting her head hard on the floor once, but she kept coming back.

Did Waddell expect Goodman (10.3 season scoring average) to come into the game somewhat uptight against her former team?

"Actually, I thought she would be a little bit uptight. I would be, it's only natural. I thought she played very well, very calm," said the coach.

NOTES: West went 27-for-67 on field goals (40.3 percent) and 16-for-28 at the foul line, while the Lady Trojans were only 8-for-43 (18.6 percent) from the floor and 11-for-31 on free throws. West had a 41-34 rebound advantage. ... Shameeka Wansley led West on the boards with eight rebounds and blocked several shots. ... Jenny Volpicelli and Kristen Waffle led Northwest's scoring with nine and eight points, respectively. ... West travels to Kannapolis A.L. Brown at 6 p.m. Friday.