Mustangs Defeat South In Sam Moir Classic

BY ED DUPREE
SALISBURY POST

East Rowan's girls basketball teams have been in the finals of local holiday tournaments more than any other school, but the championship of the Sam Moir Christmas Classic has been elusive for the Lady Mustangs during the 1990s.

East's red-hot team took care of that on Wednesday night, winning the school's first holiday tourney title in nine years by downing top-seeded South Rowan 46-40 at Catawba College's Goodman Gym.

It was East's eighth straight win.

Coach Gina Talbert's team had played in five tournament finals in the previous seven years, four times at Catawba and once in a 1991 Thanksgiving event held at the Salisbury, South Rowan and West Rowan gyms. East teams have been in 15 holiday tourney finals of the 23 events that have been completed. There was no 1988 champion, when the tourney was cut short by the measles epidemic. East has won six times.

"We probably hold the record for No. 2s, and it's nice to finally get that No. 1. The last time we won it was 1989. That was my first year helping Joe (Corl)," said Talbert. Corl died unexpectedly in the spring of 1991, and Talbert took over as head coach. Corl's daughter, Kelly, is now Talbert's assistant.

"We've been second beaucoups of times since 1989," said junior guard Nicole Loggins, voted the tournament's most valuable player after scoring a game-high 15 points, plus contributing four rebounds, three steals, two assists and a solid defensive effort. "That (1989) was the last time they won first place. The rest were like second place, second place, second place, and finally, we did it."

Loggins was joined on the all-tourney team by teammates Brooke Misenheimer and Khara Bost, South's Janetta Heggins and Jackie Wood, and West Rowan's Kari Schenk.

Loggins, who got seven of her points in the crucial fourth quarter, when East outscored South 17-11, appeared shocked when her name was announced as the MVP.

"My first reaction was, I cried. Then I hugged Mrs. Talbert. That meant the world to me. Personally, I didn't think I was going to get it, because I didn't think I did my best. But I was very happy with myself when I got it," she said.

Loggins went 5-for-8 from the floor and 5-for-7 at the foul line for her 15 points, and had shot well while scoring 12 against Davie County on Monday and 21 vs. West Rowan in Tuesday's semifinals.

"Nicole does so much defensively too," said Talbert. "She gets her hands in the way. She creates so many things defensively. ... She can do lots of things. She gets down on herself sometimes if her shot's not falling. We've got to keep iterating to her that her defense is just as important to us as her offense."

South's compact zone defense offset South's height advantage of the 6-2 Wood and 5-11 Heggins inside against East's 6-1 Julie Austin. When the ball went to Wood at the high post or Heggins down low, the defense collapsed on the taller Lady Raiders.

"I don't think they got the ball to them a lot," said Talbert. "They did some. When they did get it to Janetta down low, she'd score (14 points) or do something." Wood was also in double figures with 11.

Talbert explained that the East defense was also very aware of forward Abby Cress' outside shooting ability, and that East also had to guard against Cress getting the ball inside to Heggins.

"Sometimes, we'd get pulled out on Abby's side. We didn't want Abby to get hot on those 3-pointers.

If Abby wasn't out there, we had an easier time of keeping her from getting it down low. Janetta did a good job there when they got the ball (inside), but I think we did a good job of keeping them from getting it down there too much," she said.

"Every team is going to show us that zone," said Greene, whose Lady Raiders also lost in the 1996 finals to West Rowan. "We are going to have to hit some shots from the wing to open it up inside. ... We count on Abby (14 points in semifinals against North Rowan) to do that, and when Abby can't do it, nobody else is stepping up to get it done. They are going to doubling on Jackie and Janetta all the time when we don't hit that shot from the wing."

South shot poorly in every quarter, going 15-for-62 (24.2 percent) for the night. Cress, Jennifer Morgan and Latoya Ramsey, Greene's daughter, each made a 3-pointer, but South's players other than Wood and Heggins went only 6-for-38 with a lot of those misses coming from the perimeter.

East, in sharp contrast, shot better percentage-wise in every quarter than did South, going 17-for-38 (44.7 percent) from the floor with most of the shots coming inside 15 feet.

East shot well, especially in the final quarter, when it went 4-for-6 on field goals and 9-for-13 at the foul line, but did commit 20 turnovers to South's 17. South also had a 33-31 rebound edge.

"South played a heck of a defense, and we just never got on a roll," said Talbert. "That fourth quarter there at the end, we ran our offense like we were supposed to. We just played a little afraid and a little nervous the whole ball game."

South also appeared to play that way, but Greene didn't think his team was uptight.

"We just didn't have the intensity tonight. We are just going to have to stop being and stop playing mediocre, because mediocre is just not good enough. We just played mediocre basketball. ... The coaching staff: We had them well prepared. East had beat us last year; we knew what East could do.

We did not take East for granted," said Greene. "East was more aggressive on the boards than we were. It seemed like they just wanted this particular ball game."

South had defeated East 57-50 in East's season opener and South's second game.

Loggins said, "The main thing was that they were seeded (No.) 1 and we were seeded (No.) 3, and everybody thought that they were going to win. That was pretty much our motivation thing. We knew we could pull it through."

South, West and East were each 6-2 coming into the tournament and were seeded 1-2-3, respectively, by a drawing. East is now 9-2, while South dropped to 7-3.

It was the lowest-scoring (86 combined points) girls championship game and the lowest score by a winning team since 1985.

"I don't think they (South) like to play against a zone," said Talbert. "I don't mind playing against a man-to-man, but they play such a tough man. It's hard to get in a flow. They're quick - so much quicker than we are. ... It was a low-scoring ball game. They've got so many potential scorers there that we felt like we would be OK if we could keep it in a slow rhythm ball game and not let them get in a run-and-gun style, because that's what they like. It might not look like it tonight, but we can play a slowdown, run-your-offense type ball game better than South can. That's what we were trying to do. I would put our team halfcourt against anybody halfcourt. Even though we didn't run the offense as well as we wanted to, we took advantage of the opportunities they gave us. We'd penetrate and drive, and I've got girls that are capable of doing that."

The contest was close all the way with East never leading by more than five until Misenheimer's two free throws with six seconds left and South leading by four early in the game and early in the final period at 33-29 on a Heggins basket with 7:12 to go. East outscored South 17-7 the rest of the way.

"Neither team could ever get on a roll, but I attribute that to both teams having a lot of heart and soul. Both teams wanted it bad," Talbert said. "You can't say that one team outhustled the other or whatever. We just happened to come out on top."