By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
CHINA GROVE ó Carson coach Brooke Misenheimer sent Heather Ciscel, Megan Meismer and Aliyah Khan out to start the second half.
Those three have logged the fewest minutes of any of the Cougars so far, so Misenheimer obviously wasn’t thrilled with what she witnessed in the first 16 minutes.
She may have been even less thrilled with the second half.
It just wasn’t a good night for the Cougars, who took a couple of steps back in a 49-25 loss to NPC rival Northwest Cabarrus.
“I’d seen Northwest, and I felt coming in we were well-matched with them,” Misenheimer said. “But we just didn’t show up. The majority of our girls didn’t play hard, and I don’t have any good answers for why they didn’t. I certainly don’t understand it.”
Carson lost 61-47 to North Rowan on Monday but was in the game. It fell 36-29 to NPC foe Mooresville on Tuesday.
The Cougars (1-6, 0-4) offered very little resistance against a Northwest team that got off the bus in China Grove with a five-game losing streak.
“It had been a long dry spell for us, and we’ve been through a real rough patch,” Northwest coach Anthony Rose said. “I still thought we played tough against good East Rowan and South Rowan teams, and we’ve been getting better each week.”
It was 7-1 early, 14-3 after a quarter and 28-10 at halftime.
Carson didn’t make a field goal in the first quarter and hit only two in the first half.
“The two games earlier this week we made a lot of mistakes, but the effort was there,” Misenheimer said. “Tonight, it just wasn’t.”
Kaylene Livengood, who played inside and out, was tough again for the Cougars. She scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Marissa Sellers hit a 3-pointer and provided a spark defensively.
Carson’s closest thing to a run came when Sellers hit her 3 and Livengood scored inside to cut Northwest’s lead to 17 early in the fourth quarter.
Kayla Hahn, who hit seven 3s against South Rowan on Tuesday, paced the Trojans (2-5, 1-3) with 10 points.
“We needed this game, but the thing I liked was we didn’t wait on it,” Rose said. “We came out and took it right from the start. We played a good, aggressive game.”
NW CABARRUS (49) ó Hahn 10, Allen 9, Ivy 5, Herring 4, Pethel 8, Williams 4, Broome 4, Nazer 3, Johnson 2, Blakely.
CARSON (25) ó K. Livengood 16, Sellers 3, Hough 2, Marshall 2, Settlemyer 1, Heggins 1, Meismer, Khan, Ciscel, M. Livengood.NWC 14 14 11 10 ó 49
Carson 3 7 6 9 ó 25