After a frenetic first quarter that featured 16 turnovers and a 16-10 Mustang lead, East eased the pace and stifled the home team in a 52-43 nonconference victory Tuesday night.

“We got up eight, nine points and I tried getting the girls’ attention — ‘Look, we don’t have to score the rest of the game,’” East head coach Randy Bingham said. “I’d be happy to walk our of here two to zero. The kids had a little trouble realizing that at first.”

Actually, they had a lot of trouble.

“I thought Coach Bingham was crazy because we were taking so much time,”Mustang guard Brooke Misenheimer said. “But you see the score at the end and that’s what won it for us.”

That and Misenheimer’s hot shooting. The senior point guard connected on a trio of 3-pointers in the first half on her way to 22 points. Her two triples in the first quarter took the early lead from the Cavs, and the first of five steals led to three straight North turnovers.

The Cavaliers (0-1) took every chance they got to run, but it didn’t work in the team’s season opener. Gary Atwell’s team had as many turnovers — 10— as points when the first-quarter buzzer sounded.

“I told the kids if we can harness that speed and use it in the right way we can be very, very good,”Atwell said. “If we play out of control, we won’t be very good.”

Bingham convinced his girls to slow the pace and East (2-0) set up a passing game with Misenheimer, Nicole Loggins and Emily Rich or Tiffany Poole around the perimeter. No matter how long it took, the Mustangs sent the ball around the outside against North’s zone defense until they finally got the shot they wanted.

“We stepped it down a little bit,”Misenheimer said. “We knew North liked playing a run-and-gun game and a lot of times you get caught up in that and commit turnovers. Coach Bingham told us it was good to slow it down and take good shots.”

That’s not to say those shots were falling. East scored its first points of the quarter at the 2:50 mark when Misenheimer banked in a 3-pointer — and grimaced as she went back down the court.

North couldn’t capitalize, though. Tasha Pharr’s fastbreak layup pulled theCavs within 21-16 with a minute left, but Loggins followed with a quick 3-pointer and Stephanie Morgan hit a free throw to push the halftime score to 25-16.

East’s more precise offense netted a double-digit lead in the third quarter that wasn’t seriously threatened. Misenheimer scored on a putback and had two free throws at the end of the quarter to extend to a 40-24 advantage.

North’s Megan Honeycutt led a late charge that narrowed the lead to nine in the final minute. Pharr led the Cavs with 16 points and seven rebounds, while Honeycutt added 10 points and seven boards.

“That was a lot of first game things,”Atwell said. “We missed shots, we missed open people, we tried to make the great play instead of the easy play…”

The end result was 18 turnovers. And even though East committed 14, Misenheimer was there to bail the Mustangs out with her 22 points, including a 9-for-10 showing at the free-throw line.

“Brooke seems to play her best games against us,”Atwell said. “She doesn’t make any mistakes against us.”

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NOTES: Loggins finished with 12 points and seven rebounds. Said Misenheimer of her 3-point prowess: “That was a really pleasant surprise. I haven’t been making a lot of those lately.” She then added another groan for the one that banked in in the second quarter. … Following Misenheimer’s act, North’s Amber Hill banked in a 3 on theCavs’ very next trip down the floor.

EASTROWAN (52) —Loggins 12, Rich 2, Misenheimer 22, Roberts, Morgan 5, Williams 3, Poole 6, Haynes 2, Ivey, Shaw, Goodnight, Alexander.

NORTHROWAN (43) — Witherspoon, Pharr 16, Honeycutt 10, C. Hill 2, Tucker 3, A. Hill 5, Hipps 7.

East Rowan 16 9 15 12 — 52