Staff report
CONCORD — West Rowan’s girls defeated Hickory Ridge, 73-62, on Friday to take over first place in the South Piedmont Conference.
It was hard to see that coming a week ago.
West Rowan entered the recent Dale’s Sporting Goods/Sam Moir Christmas Classic as an undefeated No. 1 seed. The Falcons limped out of that tournament at Catawba with a 1-2 mark. There was a semifinal loss to eventual champion North Rowan and a loss in the third-place game to sixth-seeded East Rowan.
“We’d stopped believing in ourselves a little bit,” West coach Ashley Poole said. “We’ve had some good conversations since then and some hard practices to get it back together.”
The Falcons (11-2, 8-0 SPC) started turning things around with a South Piedmont Conference win against Cox Mill on Tuesday. That was followed by a hard-fought, high-scoring victory against Davie County on Wednesday.
Then the Falcons put it all together on Friday in Harrisburg.
Down 10 after a quarter, West turned the game around with a 27-point second quarter for a 37-34 halftime lead.
“We really played well the last three quarters,” Poole said. “We started very slow, but once we settled down we were good. Khaila Hall and Egypt Alexander played great. Taylor Martin was great at what she does … steals and hustle.”
Hall scored 21 points, while Alexander had 20. Martin scored 12, and Shanice Miller and Shyann Vaughters had 10 each. That was a major contribution from Vaughters, who was averaging less than 2 points per game.
“This was our best game as a team,” Hall said. “Hickory Ridge is huge, but we were able to spread the floor out and make some moves. Everyone battled for rebounds.”
Hickory Ridge (12-2, 8-1 SPC) is ranked fifth in 3A and had beaten strong teams, including Mallard Creek, the third-ranked 4A team.
The Ragin’ Bulls got 14 points each from Laura McManimen and Sydney Miller and
10 from Gabby Smith.
West, 17-32 the previous two seasons, is in surprisingly great shape in the league as teams approach the halfway mark in an 18-game league season.
“This was a big step,” Poole said. “But there’s still a long road ahead of us, and we know that.”

WEST ROWAN (73) — Hall 21, Alexander 20, Martin 12, Miller 10, Vaughters 10, Linder, Sobataka.
HICKORY RIDGE (62) — McManimen 14, Miller 14, Smith 10, Shears 8, Means 5, Scott 4, Jones 4, Neal 3, Daniel 1.

West Rowan 10 27 19 17 — 73
Hickory Ridge 20 14 12 16 — 62