By David Shaw

Salisbury Post

LANDIS — There’s a playoff race to be run and it appears East Rowan’s girls are running it.

The Mustangs became sole tenants of third place in the CPC with a 57-46 victory at South Rowan on Tuesday.

“That’s the most fired-up we’ve been all year,” sophomore Ashley Collins said after East (10-13, 6-5) moved a game ahead of Davie County in the conference standings. “From start to finish, through the whole game, we were ready tonight.”

Collins led the way with 20 points. Teammates Haley Miller (12) and Katelynne Poole (10) also reached double figures.

“More than any other time, we need to be peaking right now,” said ER coach Karen Garmon. “All year we’ve been trying to put a complete game together. I’m very happy we were able to do it tonight and maintain our intensity for the whole game.”

South (8-14, 3-8) had its own problems. Aside from junior center Katherine Van Wieren (23 points), finding any offense in the Raiders lineup required a search party.

“We didn’t have confidence in ourselves,” Van Wieren said after playing a monster first half. “We got discouraged. East Rowan’s a solid team — but they’re not unbeatable. When we got on a roll, that’s when we needed to keep pushing, and we didn’t.”

Van Wieren scored 17

first-half points, most of them on putbacks and layups from the right side of the basket. She added a third-period stickback and a couple of close-range bank shots in the fourth.

“All I know is Katherine Van Wieren is a daggone warrior,” South coach Jim Brooks said. “She played her heart out at both ends of the floor. She understands the game and when we get her the ball, we’re a pretty good team.”

So was East. Miller may have scored the game’s most-important basket, though most eyes were looking elsewhere when she missed the second of two free throws, stole the ball from a South defender and hit a layup that gave the Mustangs a 21-18 lead with 3:03 left in the first half.

“She’s got those Go-Go-Gadget arms,” said Garmon. “She is Inspector Gadget. Her arms are always out and she’s all over the place. You watch her on game films and she is always moving.”

Miller’s rebound/putback combo at the buzzer gave East a 34-26 halftime lead. Rebecca Cooper’s three-point play made it 39-28 early in the third quarter and a pair of Collins free throws put the Mustangs ahead by 15 late in the period.

“We just fell behind and couldn’t catch up,” said Van Wieren. “Our passes got real sloppy and we couldn’t get the ball inside to our big girls. That was the difference.”

EAST rowan (57) — Collins 20, Miller 12, Poole 10, Cooper 8, Cress 4, K.Stout 3, Barrier, Vanderford, Hill.

SOUTH rowan (46) — Van Wieren 23, May 8, Wise 7, Haywood 3, Brown 2, Wilson 2, Garrett 1, Morton, Houston.

E. Rowan 15 19 17 6 — 57

S. Rowan 11 15 13 7 — 46