By Jordan Honeycutt
sports@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — South Rowan head coach Jarrod Smith had the perfect game plan of “pack it in” against West Rowan center Shay Steele — except he took his own offensive production a little for granted.
The Raiders had been scoring the ball well in the Moir, including a 61 point eruption in a win over North Rowan, but that all went by the wayside in a 49-35 third place game loss to the Falcons.
South shot 15 — yes, 15 — percent from the field, scoring 17 points in the fourth quarter, which was one shy of its output from the previous three.
“There’s no excuse for it, I mean we couldn’t beat a YMCA rec team shooting the way we did tonight, much less a good team like West,” Smith said.
The plan against Steele worked, as she only scored 13 points and fouled out early in the fourth quarter, but the damage had already been self-inflicted.
Steele picked up a technical foul in the first half, which is also a personal and led to her being disqualified.
Where Steele was lacking, Brittney Barber, who had a tremendous tournament, and point guard Nycieko Dixon had her back with 13 and 10 points.
West head man Todd McNeely had an opposite outlook than that of Smith.
“I’m proud of the girls for this weekend’s performances,” McNeely said. “I mean to win two games and then challenge Salisbury like we did, it should give us a real boost going into our next two games against great teams in North Iredell and Carson.”
A scary moment occurred late in the game, as West reserve guard Brooke Harrington attempted a 3-pointer and was crashed into on the shot, which ended up having her carried off the court by teammates.
“We think she hyper-extended it and it shouldn’t be all too serious of an injury, luckliy,” McNeely said.
Smith also showed a huge display of sportsmanship in helping carry Harrington to the Falcon locker room before addressing his Raiders.
“We have a lot of potential and I saw some bright spots to build on in the coming weeks,” Smith said.
SOUTH ROWAN (35) —Locklear 14, K.Corriher 9, L.Corriher 6, Miller 3, Coley 2, Bost, Honeycutt, Hubbard, McCoy, Stamey.
WEST ROWAN (49) — Barber 13, Steele 13, Dixon 10, Dutton 6, Sobataka 3, Hunter 2, James 2, Allessandrini, Cross, Edwards, Harrington, Landy, Ramsue.
S. Rowan 6 4 08 17 — 35
W. Rowan 19 9 11 10 — 49