CHINA GROVE — Playing in her first game since the season opener, Carson’s Chrishona Roberson played hero Tuesday night against South Rowan.
With the back-and-forth game knotted up at 47 with 13 ticks left, Roberson snagged an offensive rebound and was hacked.
The junior went to the line and calmly sank both free throws to give the Lady Cougars a wild 49-47 victory.
“I told myself ‘Chrishona, come on, make these free throws,’” she said. “I’ve been out with a concussion, so I wanted to help my team win.
“[Being able to help my team win] means a lot to me,” Roberson added. “I’ve been stressing and thinking that today was going to be a bad day because I’ve been out. But it felt good to be motivated by my team. It was a great feeling to make them.”
Cougar head coach Brooke Misenheimer called the free throws “huge” for her team.
“We have struggled from the free throw line all year, and Chrishona stepped up,” she said. “This was her first game with us since the very first game we played against Central Cabarrus. She’s been out with a concussion so this was her first game back.
“I loved how she jumped right in. Those free throws were huge for us.”
South Rowan drew up one final play to leading scorer Avery Locklear with time winding down. But Carson was ready for it, swatting away her baseline heave as a final desperation three went long to give the Cougars a hard-fought win.
“We knew the ball was going to go to Avery or Chipman, and we just wanted to make it difficult and make them take a difficult shot,” Misenheimer added. “I thought we did a good job of executing that.”
South skipper Jarrod Smith said the game shouldn’t have came down to the final play as the Raiders held leads at the end of the first three frames.
“We shouldn’t have made it come down to the last play. Defensively, they had a great gameplan and we didn’t execute on offense,” he explained. “We just thought we could walk in and win because we were here. It was my fault — I did not prepare us to win the game.”
Locklear led all scorers with 20 points, while Alex Allen (18 points) and Kate Cole (15 points) paced Carson.

SOUTH (47) — Locklear 20, Chipman 8, Bost 6, Martin 4, McClendon 4, Corriher 4, Smith, Waters, Stamey, Figueroa
CARSON (49) — Allen 18, Cole 15, Roberson 6, Gray 6, Clark 4, Huffman 2, McClary, Hunsucker, Jackson, VanVoorhis

S. Rowan 15 14 12 6 — 47
Carson 14 13 12 10 — 49