By Mike London

Salisbury Post

GRANITE QUARRY — East Rowan’s girls put their ugly loss at North Davidson in the rearview mirror by beating the Black Knights

48-40 in Friday’s rematch.

East crashed and burned with 34 turnovers in its 57-32 loss in Welcome on Jan. 2, but the third-place Mustangs (9-11, 5-3 CPC) have improved since that low point. They’ve won four in a row and still hope to overtake North Davidson (11-8, 6-3 CPC) for second place.

“The game at North Davidson wasn’t pretty at all,” East’s Ashley Collins said. “It was so bad we really didn’t even talk about it much.

“We just tried to move on.”

East moved on with deadly free-throw shooting. East ran a patient, nothing-but-layups offense in the fourth quarter and shot 14-for-18 from the line. East was 25-for-33 on free throws for the game.

“We played good defense, and that gave us a chance to win even on a very poor shooting night,” North Davidson coach Kim Payne said. “But we kept fouling them, and they kept making free throws.”

The do-everything presence of Collins, the rebounding of Lauren Cress and clutch points by Katelynne Poole, Haley Miller and Lisa Hill keyed the Mustangs’ win.

The teams combined to miss 26 of 29 field-goal attempts in a frigid first quarter, but East seized control in the second quarter when its zone defense forced the Black Knights to keep firing away from outside. North shot 2-for-16 in the quarter, while East was getting a few layups, and the Mustangs led 21-11 at halftime.

“We wanted to give them one shot from outside, and then rip down the rebound,” East coach Karen Garmon said. “We were able to stay in that

2-3 zone because Lauren Cress was ripping down the rebounds.”

The crisis came when North Davidson shooter Allison Day heated up in the fourth quarter. With Day splashing three 3-pointers in a four-minute span, the Black Knights surged within 36-35 with four minutes to play.

But Hill hit two free throws to break North’s momentum, and Collins yanked down a defensive board and made two more free throws to put East back in charge. After that, the Mustangs marched to the line and didn’t miss often.

“It was a blessing that we had four days to work on their pressure and prepare for all their different defenses,” Garmon said. “North Davidson is very smart on defense and very quick, but we did a much better job of recognizing things this time.”

North davidson (40) — Day 17, Anderson 10, A. Clodfelter 6, Cooke 3, Welch 2,Allen 2, C. Clodfelter, Amos, Howard

East Rowan (48) — Miller 13, Poole 11, Collins 8, Cress 6, Hill 6, Cooper 2, K. Stout 2.

N. Davidson 5 6 12 17 — 40

E. Rowan 6 15 9 18 — 48

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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4222 or mlondon@salisburypost.com.