Prep Basketball: East girls top Carson

Published 12:18 am Wednesday, January 20, 2016

By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

CHINA GROVE — East Rowan’s Brittany Small is a rebound-first player and Jocelyn Lowe is a pass-first player, but they got things done offensively on Tuesday at Carson.
Carson held the Pharr twins to 13 points, but Lowe (17 points) and Small (16) had career highs to lead East to a 52-45 victory over the Cougars.
Carson had beaten East twice — a blowout in an SPC game in Granite Quarry, plus a tough win in the Christmas tournament — but the Mustangs got this one.
“We’re never going to be a smooth offensive team,” East coach Danielle Porter said. “But we did the things tonight that we have to do to win. We got 50/50 balls. We got weak-side rebounds. We made free throws.”
East (10-7, 5-6) won its third straight.
The Mustangs made 26 of 41 free throws, while Carson went 9-for-13 at the foul line. That was the difference, along with East’s overwhelming 46-23 advantage on the boards. Small grabbed 15 rebounds.
“There were times they just out-willed us on the boards,” Carson coach Brooke Misenheimer said. “Their rebounding killed us.”
Carson (10-7, 6-5) stayed close by making eight 3-pointers, but the Cougars lost their fifth straight and their fourth straight SPC game. The Cougars played short-handed. Anne Marie Turney (concussion) and Destiny Jackson (both knees) are out, and the Cougars lost McKenzie Gadson late in the first half when she took an elbow to an eye.
“We’re going through some things right now, but we’ve got to weather the storm and get things turned around,” Misenheimer said.”Hopefully this tough stretch we’re going through will make us a better team in the long run.”
Carson didn’t score for nearly five minutes at the start of the game. Sydney Taylor finally got fouled on a 3-point attempt and made all three free throws to get the Cougars on the board.
East led 6-5 after an ugly opening quarter in which neither team could get untracked offensively.
“Our defense was really on point tonight,” Lowe said. “We were aggressive.”
East pushed ahead 22-18 at halftime. Small, who was carrying the East offense with stick-backs, had a double-double by halftime.
East maintained its advantage in the third quarter. Taylor and Olivia Gabriel made 3-pointers for the Cougars, but Lowe answered with two long ones for the Mustangs.
“Coach keeps telling me to have confidence in myself as an offensive player,” Lowe said. “She told me to believe in myself and do the things in games that I do in practice. I usually look for my teammates, but the shots were there for me tonight, and they felt good leaving my hand.”
Lowe’s 3-pointer early in the third quarter was a lead-changer. Then she made a 3-pointer as the quarter ended to push a one-point East lead to 32-28. That probably was the biggest momentum shot of the game.
“That was a very calm, poised shot she made,” Porter said. “Lowe’s offense was huge tonight, and Small’s offense was huge. They gave us balanced scoring.”
In the fourth quarter, Carson stayed within striking distance by making four 3-pointers — two by Taylor and one each by Gabriel and Kailie Ketchie — but the Mustangs kept getting to the foul line. East got 16 of its 20 fourth-quarter points on free throws.
“As bad as we played, we hung around and we had our chances,” Misenheimer said. “We just never could make a run.”
The game’s critical sequence unfolded shortly after Gabriel’s 3-pointer with 3:23 left cut East’s lead to 39-38.
Carson got a stop and had a possession with a chance to take the lead, but Gabriel missed, and East freshman Lauren Weisensel pulled down a rebound in traffic and triggered a fastbreak with an outlet pass. Shenique Pharr finished it, scoring as she was fouled, and the Mustangs led 41-38.
Pharr missed her free throw, but she hustled to grab the rebound. Then she got fouled again. She made her first free throw for a 42-38 lead. She missed the second one, but again Carson couldn’t secure the rebound. Small was fouled on a drive with 2:32 left, made both free throws and East led by six. East got five points on one trip down the floor. That was ballgame.
“We missed some critical box-outs and we missed a lot of layups,” Misenheimer said.
East won despite shooting 28.6 percent from the floor. Carson shot 26.4 percent.

EAST ROWAN (52) — J. Lowe 17, Small 16, Shenell Pharr 8, Weisensel 6, Shenique Pharr 5, S. Lowe, Wagner, Harrison.
CARSON (45) — Taylor 12, Gabriel 11, Shumaker 6, Ketchie 5, Gadson 5, Furr 4, Fesperman 2, Wiggins, Street.

East Rowan 6 16 10 20 — 52
Carson 5 13 10 17 — 45