By Ryan Bisesi
rbisesi@salisburypost.com
MOORESVILLE — South Rowan was in the racing city, but the Raiders couldn’t find a sustainable pace against Mooresville Tuesday night.
In a 43-34 loss to the Blue Devils, South committed 17 turnovers and couldn’t get the easy ones to fall. The Raiders dropped to 2-3 overall.
Lynsey Corriher’s 3-pointer with 3:07 left to play gave South a 34-32 edge but the Raiders were outscored 11-0 from then on.
“I think we made a lot of silly mistakes,” South coach Jarrod Smith said. “The one thing we talked about before the game was we can’t let No. 12 get open and shoot 3s.”
That would be Mooresville’s Amber Sherrill, a freshman playing in only her second game. Sherrill scored a game-best 18 points, including Mooresville’s first 11 to start the second half.
“She can shoot,” Mooresville coach Melanie Allen said. “She’s going to be really good and she’s working out the kinks.”
Sherrill’s layup tied the score at 34 and Zana Tatum gave Mooresville the lead for keeps with 2:20 left. The Raiders didn’t hit from the field in the final three minutes and missed the front end of two 1-and-1’s.
“Once we got the lead, it’s like we decided it was okay, we had done our job,” Smith said.
South took a 10-8 lead at the end of the first quarter but Mooresville (2-0) held South to two field goals in the second. Rakena Bowers’ basket put the Blue Devils up 12-10 and they led 16-14 at halftime.
Sherrill collected a steal and a layup for the first points of the second half and drained a trey to make it 21-14. South’s Avery Locklear, coming off a 22-point night against Cox Mill, hit two buckets to close the gap and Lauren Register nailed a shot to make it a 21-20 game.
Sherrill showed up again. A pair of 3s in a little over a minute stretched the lead back out to 27-20. Kaitlyn Jones’ bucket made it 27-22 at the end of the third quarter.
“We talked well on defense all year until tonight,” Smith said. “In the second half, we didn’t talk very well.”
Consecutive treys by Corriher and Jones made it 31-30 and Jones later tied it on a free throw.
Lynsey Corriher led South with 10 points while Tatum had 12 points for the Blue Devils.
“We easily could have won this basketball game if we boxed out and didn’t turn the ball over,” Smith said.
SOUTH ROWAN (34) — L. Corriher 10, Locklear 6, Register 6, K. Corriher 5, Jones 4, McConneaughey 2, Coley 1, Allison, McCoy.
MOORESVILLE (43) — Sherrill 18, Tatum 12, Bowers 5, Jennings 4, Holbrooks 2, Tilley 2, Williams, Bourke, Cottrell, Ellis.
S. Rowan 10 4 8 12 — 34
Mooresville 8 8 11 10 — 43