By Bret Strelow
bstrelow@salisburypost.com
TYRO ó Salisbury’s starters walked to midcourt, and West Davidson practically conceded the opening tip by positioning four players inside the 3-point arc on the Hornets’ offensive end.Alycia Beverly was surrounded by black uniforms as she stood in the center circle, but Salisbury actually took the floor as the more short-handed team.
Playing without senior standouts Shi-Heria Shipp and De’Rya Wylie, the Hornets rolled to a 71-36 road victory Friday night.
Bubbles Phifer, who has moved over to point guard while Shipp recovers from an ankle injury, led the Hornets (17-2, 8-2 CCC) with 22 points, five assists and five steals.
“It’s always good anytime you can go without two of your seniors and come out and win a game,” Salisbury coach Andrew Mitchell said. “We were honestly nervous coming into this game. We’ve never had to play without two of them at the same time.”
The Hornets attended the funeral for Wylie’s grandmother before traveling to Tyro, and they finished with more blocks (12) than field goals allowed (11). Ayanna Holmes blocked three shots in the first quarter alone.
Salisbury led 15-0 less than three minutes into the game. Phifer scored two baskets in that run and assisted on four of the other five.
“I think her strength is passing the basketball,” Mitchell said. “We rely on her so much to score that I really do forget she’s capable of playing the point guard position. Until we talked I didn’t realize how passionate she was about that.”
Shipp rolled her right ankle in the first quarter of Salisbury’s loss to East Davidson on Tuesday and sat out a win against Providence Grove the next night.
She was a spectator again Friday against the Green Dragons (9-9, 5-5), but Phifer got the Hornets going by creating scoring chances for Holmes, Kia Rice, Ashia Holmes and Nene Phifer.”Playing point guard is a lot of fun,” she said. “Coach kind of told me I’m settling for my 3-point shot, so I felt like I needed to get my team involved more instead of me being, ‘Oh, I’m open, so let me shoot it.’
“I saw my teammates open and gave them the ball. It felt good to pass to everybody.”
SALISBURY (71) ó B.Phifer 22, Rice 12, Ay.Holmes 9, N.Phifer 9, As.Holmes 6, Heilig 5, Clinding 4, Miller 2, Young 2.
WEST DAVIDSON (36) ó Owens 21, Myers 9, Church 3, Cox 2, Hairston 1, Sarver, Beverly.
Salisbury 22 13 25 11 ó 71
W. Davidson 10 7 6 13 ó 36