By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
STATESVILLE ó Kayla Morrow’s textbook bounce pass to Chelsea McManus produced a layup and a 2-0 lead for South Rowan’s girls.
That was South’s first lead ó and its last. Statesville’s Greyhounds scored the next 12 points and breezed to a 62-29 NPC victory over the Raiders on Tuesday night in Statesville.
South (3-7, 0-2) had the same problems that have plagued it throughout December ó too many turnovers and too little inside scoring punch.
“Right now, we really need out post players to step up,” South coach Jarrod Smith said. “I thought we had some guards play well ó Libby Sides, Lauren Miller, Asia Caple ó but we’ve got to get it from everybody.”
South is 0-6 against Statesville since joining the NPC so it wasn’t expected to win this one, but Smith had hoped for a more competitive game.
South opened the game spreading the floor and looking for layups, but patience gave way to panic as Statesville’s defensive pressure picked up.South trailed 34-13 at halftime and had more turnovers (18) than field-goal attempts (13) in the first half. It’s not possible to win with that ratio.South made only seven field goals in the game, but it did play with a lot more fire in the second half on both ends of the floor.
Miller, Sides and Nicole Barringer attacked the basket and got to the foul line frequently. The Raiders shot 18 free throws after halftime.
“We’ve had a terrible problem with aggressiveness most games, but we did fight harder in the second half,” Smith said. “I’ve had to jump on the girls at halftime just about every game, but sooner or later we’re going to realize we’ve got to fight from the start.”
Miller scored seven points for the Raiders, while Sides had six.
Statesville (5-4, 3-0) has dominated the NPC recently and has most of its roster back, but it obviously misses the floor leadership of star guard Keyrra Gillespie. The Greyhounds got it done by committee on Friday, with six girls scoring between seven and 10.
“Without a doubt, I’ll take that balance,” coach Todd Jones said. “I’d rather have that every night because we’re harder for other teams to defend when everybody contributes.”
n
NOTES: South will be the No. 6 seed for the Christmas tournament and will take on No. 3 seed West Rowan in the first round. … Smith was hit with a technical in the third quarter, although it wasn’t for anything that was audible.
SOUTH ROWAN (29) ó Miller 7, Sides 6, McManus 4, Barringer 4, Goins 3, Caple 3, Corriher 2, Morrow, Stancil, Weber, Lookabill, Waldroup.
STATESVILLE (62) ó Williams 10, Parker 10, Sham. Harvey 9, Bradley 8, Watts 8, Jones 7, Renwick 5, Shan. Harvey 3, McCord 2, Brown.South Rowan 4 9 12 4 ó 29
Statesville 12 22 15 13 ó 62