North Girls Bump South

BY BRYAN STRICKLAND
SALISBURY POST

This time last year, Friday night's classic clash between the North Rowan and South Rowan girls would have ended with the victorious Cavaliers mobbing teammate Jackie Wood.

But Friday, a simple handshake sufficed.

"You can't take North for granted," said Wood, who transferred from North to South this season. "If you take them lightly like we did, they'll run all over you."

North by no means ran all over previously unbeaten South, but the Cavaliers had cause to run around and celebrate after a pulsating 74-69 overtime victory.

Wood scored the 1,000th point of her career, but most of the highlights belonged to her former team. North rallied from an early 11-0 hole and later overcame a six-point deficit midway through overtime.

"It was one of those games you live for, playing against two of your former teammates," said North's Megan Honeycutt, who poured in a career-high 30 points. "There was a lot of adrenaline flowing.

"It doesn't get any better than that."

It didn't look good for North (3-1) with two minutes left in overtime. But trailing 69-63, Honeycutt hit a tough shot to start the rally, then Sharika Cuthbertson went coast-to-coast for a layup to make it 69-67.

South called a timeout with 59 seconds left and set up a play for Abby Cress, but Cress airballed a 3-pointer that might have put the game away. Honeycutt missed at the other end, but Courtney Hill drew a foul on a follow shot.

Hill made the first free throw but missed the second one, but the rebound bounced right to her, and she drilled a 10-footer in the lane to put North ahead 70-69 with 38 seconds left.

Jennifer Morgan missed from in close at the other end, and North hit its final four free throws to end it.

"I feel so good, I don't know what to say," said Cuthbertson, who shattered her previous career high of nine points by scoring 20. "I feel like crying I'm so happy."

South played without star Janetta Heggins, who may have tonsillitis, but at first that didn't seem to matter. The Raiders jumped all over North, forcing five turnovers in the first three-plus minutes. Jennifer Hauss, starting in place of Heggins, scored five early points to help South open up an 11-0 bulge.

"That was kind of killer," Honeycutt said. "For a minute there, I thought this is awful. They're playing without Janetta, and we're going to get creamed.

"But we just gathered our composure and came back."

The heart of the comeback came in the first two minutes of the second half. Still trailing 35-28 at halftime, the Cavaliers picked up the pace and tore off 10 straight points to take their first lead of the game. Honeycutt gave North its first lead at 36-35 with a tough follow shot, then Cuthbertson extended the lead with a backcourt steal and a layup against three defenders.

"We had pretty good intensity early in the game, and if we could have kept that we could have gotten things done," said South coach James Greene. "But North played the better game. They were more aggressive than we were. They wanted the game more than we did."

After North finally took its first lead, neither team relented. Five lead changes and a whopping 10 ties followed.

One of those ties came at the 4:51 mark of the fourth quarter, when Wood drew a foul from Hill and sank a pair of free throws to make it 51-51. The first free throw was Wood's 14th point of the game and the 1,000th of her career.

"I didn't worry about it too much," said Wood, who finished with 24 points before fouling out in overtime. "It was a big thing, but not really.

"I just wanted to go out there and concentrate on the basketball game."

Both teams had shots to win it in regulation. After Cuthbertson tied it at 63-63 on a short bank shot with 24 seconds left, Honeycutt swiped a Latoya Ramsey pass but missed a tough layup.

South called timeout to set up a final shot, but solid defense by North forced an impossible 3-point try by Hauss at the buzzer.

That set up the epic overtime.

"I'm as proud of this bunch as any bunch I've coached," said North coach Gary Atwell. "They don't have any quit in them and they're loyal to each other.

"They work with each other so hard."

NOTES: Cress finished with 16 points, half of them coming in the opening quarter. ... North struggled at the free-throw line, except when it counted most. The Cavaliers missed the front end of one-and-ones on five of six occasions and were just 18 of 38 before draining their final four. ... Both teams had plenty of chances at the foul line. Five players fouled out, and another five finished with four fouls.

Girls

_SOUTH ROWAN (69) - Wood 24, Cress 16, Ramsey 10, Hauss 7, Byrd 6, Siege 2, Morgan 2, Gaddy 2, Sides, Andrews.

_NORTH ROWAN (74) - Honeycutt 30, Cuthbertson 20, C. Hill 9, Hipps 8, N. Hill 3, Bailey 2, Brown 2, Lee, Cowan, Tucker.