Statesville girls 77, South Rowan 53

By Mike London

mlondon@salisburypost.com

LANDIS — The bad news for South Rowan's girls basketball team was its fifth straight loss, 30 turnovers, a million fouls and an ugly 77-53 NPC setback against Statesville.

The good news in Monday's makeup contest was a career game for sophomore post player Chelsea McManus.

McManus scored 13 points and became the eighth different Raider to lead the team in scoring in a game this season. Asia Caple, Kayla Corriher, Libby Sides, Nicole Barringer, Kayla Morrow, Sam Goins and Lauren Miller had done it previously.

"Chelsea had her best game, and that's the way I've expected her to play," South coach Jarrod Smith said. "She finally had that strong game, and I'm glad I've got her two more years."

South (6-14, 3-7) stayed with the Greyhounds for seven minutes. A free throw by Morrow, a baseline hook by Corriher and a stickback by McManus pulled South within 13-11 late in the first quarter, but the Greyhounds (12-6, 8-2) answered with a wicked 14-2 run for breathing room.

South closed the first half with a sweet reverse layup by McManus, who handled a nice pass from Sides, but Statesville owned a 43-23 lead.

Statesville led by as many as 30 points in the fourth quarter, and both teams spent most of that marathon stanza parading to the foul line.

South was 18-for-31 on free throws for the game, with 16 of those tries coming in the final eight minutes. Statesville was 20-for-31 at the stripe.Janitsha Williams led the Greyhounds with 21 points. Simone Parker (19) and Cameron Bradley (16) also enjoyed fine nights.

Williams scored from everywhere. Parker got nine points at the foul line. Bradley nailed three 3-pointers.

South was only outscored 34-30 by the Greyhounds in the second half, and that was a small positive.

"I was impressed with South in the second half," Statesville coach Todd Jones said. "As far as my team, it's hard to say from one game to the next. We've searched for consistency all year. The first half tonight, it looked like we could play with anybody. The second half, it looked like anybody could beat us."

Caple hit South's only 3 and scored nine points. Morrow also scored nine before joining McManus on the bench with five fouls. Miller had a strong fourth quarter handling the ball and netted her six points in that period.

"We were a lot more aggressive in the second half," Smith said. "But we've got to start out aggressive. We can't just decide to get aggressive after we get way down."

STATESVILLE (77) — Williams 21, Parker 19, Bradley 16, Watts 9, Shan. Harvey 7, Renwick 2, Sherrill 2, McCord, Jones, Sham. Harvey, Brown, Wodecki.

SOUTH ROWAN (53) — McManus 13, Morrow 9, Caple 9, Miller 6, Goins 5, Sides 4, Corriher 3, Lookabill 2, Waldroup 2, Barringer, Jones, Weber, Stancil, Bost.

Statesville 17 26 18 16 — 77

South Rowan 11 12 10 20 — 53