By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
CHINA GROVE — A.L. Brown’s girls successfully executed their gameplan on Tuesday in the Carson gym.
That still wasn’t enough to achieve victory, but it did keep the Wonders from being blown away. Carson, which came in averaging 78 points a game, settled for a grind-it-out 55-33 victory.
“Kannapolis did a great job of keeping us from getting into any kind of an offensive flow,” Carson coach Brooke Misenheimer said. “We couldn’t find any rhythm and we took a lot of bad shots early in the game.”
The instructions that first-year Brown head coach Mike Wolford gave his team was to be patient on the offensive end and to force the Cougars into a halfcourt game.
“They’ve been scoring in the 80s, and there’s no way we can score 80,” Wolford said. “We had to try to frustrated them and keep the score low. We wanted to make them use their energy playing defense every time we had the ball, and we hoped that would affect their legs on the offensive end.”
Carson missed post player Tyesha Phillip, out with an ankle injury, but the Cougars (5-0) weren’t in any real danger after the second quarter. That’s the period when Carson guard Kelly Dulkoski hit two 3s in a two-minute span, and A.L. Brown point guard Aaliyah Spears went down with a knee injury.
Carson led 30-12 at halftime and put the game away in the third quarter with nice execution on screen-and-rolls in its halfcourt offense.
Chloe Monroe hit three 3s for the Cougars. Sarrah Holman locked down A.L. Brown shooter Sara Tuttle until the final minutes, and post players Allison Blackwell, Alex Allen and Katherine Barringer teamed for 23 points.
“In the second half, we stopped taking quick shots and looked for the open man a lot better,” Blackwell said.
A.L. BROWN (33) — Brice 7, Phifer 7, Cannon 7, Tuttle 6, Smith 4, Spears 2, Lane, Chalmers, Vernon, Shue, Raper, Grant.
CARSON (55) — Dulkoski 14, Monroe 11, Barringer 9, Blackwell 8, Holman 7, Allen 6, Parks, Stirewalt, Cole.
A.L. Brown 6 6 9 12 — 33
Carson 11 19 14 11 — 55