By Ronnie Gallagher
rgallagher@salisburypost.com
LEXINGTON ó The Salisbury girls will head into Tuesday night’s first-round playoff game with a 23-0 record.
Against everybody not named East Davidson.
The Hornets are 0-3 against the Golden Eagles, with the third loss coming Friday night in Central Davidson’s gym.
An inbounds pass with four seconds left in the CCC tournament final was knocked away from Shi-Heria Shipp, and Salisbury lost 45-43 in another heartbreaker against the state’s No. 1 team in 2A.
It was a typical game between the two juggernauts. The teams traded the lead eight times, with Salisbury holding the upper hand for most of the game. The Hornets led by seven twice ó once at the end of the first quarter and again in the third.
But East Davidson made the big plays down the stretch and held Salisbury to seven fourth-quarter points.
Asked if this was the most frustrating of the three losses, Hornets coach Andrew Mitchell sighed.
“All of them have been frustrating,” he said.
Especially this one.
A 3-pointer from Nene Phifer gave Salisbury a 36-32 lead going into the final quarter, but the Golden Eagles struck quickly. An Anna Freeman runner gave East the lead at 40-38 three minutes in.
The teams showed some nerves from that point on. East led 45-40, but two missed one-and-one chances late opened the door for Salisbury.
De’Rya Wylie hit a free throw and, when Shipp scored on a putback with 26 seconds remaining, it was 45-43.
With a raucous crowd on its feet, Ashia Holmes launched a 3-pointer from the corner that just missed with 12 seconds left. Elizabeth Merritt was fouled and missed at the line.
The Hornets barreled downcourt only to call timeout in front of their bench with four ticks left.
“We wanted to run Bubbles (Phifer) off a Shipp screen,” Mitchell explained, adding that Shipp should also be open in the middle.
Phifer, who had already swished four 3s, was covered and a direct pass to Shipp was batted away by Freeman. Salisbury never got a shot off.
“Shi-Heria was open, but we threw an air pass instead of a bounce pass,” Mitchell said. “With an opportunity to win the game, we made a mental mistake and you can’t do that against them.”
Salisbury led 27-24 at halftime thanks to Bubbles Phifer, who went into the break with four 3s and 14 points.
It was Shipp’s turn to ignite the Hornets as they surged to a 33-26 lead.
Freeman then took over. At the high post, she either whirled to the basket or fed Merritt.
East also did a better job on Shipp and Phifer. Both managed just two fourth-quarter points.
“We were running plays for (Shipp), but they doubled her and kinda took her out of it,” Mitchell said.
The stat that stood out was free-throw shooting. Salisbury was 4-for-12 at the line.
“You go 4-for-12 in a championship game on a foreign court, it’s hard to recover from that,” Mitchell said. “Especially against the No. 1 team in the state.”
salisbury (43) ó B.Phifer 16, Shipp 12, Rice 4, Wylie 4, N.Phifer 3, Heilig 2, Ashia Holmes 2, Ay. Holmes.
east davidson (45) ó Freeman 15, Cutshaw 12, Merritt 11, Grimsley 6, Hicks 1, Fox, Beck.
Salisbury 14 13 9 7 ó 43
E. Davidson 7 17 8 13 ó 45