By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

CHINA GROVE — Carson’s girls basketball team survived a 31-point onslaught by Thomasville guard Dee Long and beat the Bulldogs, 60-47, on Wednesday.
“That girl was pretty quick and she’s faster than we are,” Carson sophomore McKenzie Gadson said. “We didn’t do a great job of stopping her, but she was the only they had who was scoring.”
Balance was the reason Carson won the game. Almost everyone in uniform scores for the Cougars. A dozen different Carson girls scored on Wednesday, with Gadson leading the way with 18 points.
Secily Ray, the former Thomasville and Wake Forest star, was filling in as head coach for the Bulldogs. Fortunately for Carson, she couldn’t put herself in the game. Ray was impressed by the Cougars.
“They were very good and they worked well together,” Ray said. “You can tell they’ve played together for a while. They’ve got some chemistry.”
Carson (8-1) won its seventh in a row since a last-second loss to Central Cabarrus on Nov. 21. That’s the longest Carson winning streak since the 2012-13 season.
Carson had stretches when it looked pretty ragged.
“There were times when we got away from playing as a team,” Gadson said. “And we’re not very good at those times.”
Taylor Wiggins hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter to get the Cougars going.
Gadson had 10 points by halftime, and Carson led 29-15.
Carson was struggling along with a 35-23 lead late in the third quarter, when Micah Furr got a steal for an easy two. Then Kailie Ketchie made a nice pass to Gadson for a layup, and Olivia Gabriel breezed right down the lane for the layup that provided a 41-25 lead after three quarters.
Carson went up 20 points when Maren Shumaker scored off a hard-working offensive board with 3:12 remaining. Misenheimer sat down Gadson and Gabriel at that point, but Long, who made four 3-pointers, wasn’t giving up. She scored eight points in a matter of seconds.
The Bulldogs scratched back to 55-43 with 1:36 left, and Misenheimer had to send Gabriel to the scorer’s table to run Carson’s delay game and finish things off.
“We’ve won all these games in a row by sharing the ball and doing all the little things,” Carson senior captain Alijuandra Street said. “We didn’t do those things for the full game tonight, but we got the win.”

THOMASVILLE (47)
Long 31, Jas. Nelson 8, Billie 3, Gales 2, Gladden 2, Hart 1.

CARSON (60)
Gadson 18, Gabriel 9, Wiggins 8, Street 5, Shumaker 4, Jackson 4, Turney 3, Cooper 2, Jolly 2, Furr 2, Ketchie 2, Fesperman 1, Taylor.

Thomasville 6 9 10 22 — 47
Carson 16 13 12 19 — 60