By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — South Rowan’s girls demolished North Rowan, 63-25, in a running-clock game on Thursday, but there was an absence of joy on the faces of South coach John Davis and standout player Janiya Downs.

“I should be enjoying the win, but I’m still sitting here thinking about the one we let get away (against Mooresville) in the first round,” Davis said. “We wanted to be playing today for a chance to go to the championship.”

But that didn’t happen for the fifth-seeded Raiders (6-6).

“We should’ve won against Mooresville, but we just didn’t play our game,”  Downs added. “I’m happy to get my first win in this tournament, but I’d much rather have won yesterday than today.”

Still, it’s not like South is taking any Moir tournament success for granted. The program has posted  just one winning record in the tournament since 2002 and had dropped 25 of its previous 31 Moir outings before winning big against eighth-seeded North Rowan (0-9). South will shoot for a winning record in this year’s event when it takes on seventh-seeded Davie for fifth place today at noon.

“We’d really like to walk out of here, 2-1,”  Davis said.

Downs, a tall, talented sophomore guard, was too much for North. She had 17 points by halftime and finished her day’s work with 23 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. She sat down for good late in the third quarter when the game moved into running-clock territory. The running clock is triggered whenever a team holds a 40-point lead at any point after halftime.

“You always worry about how the girls are going to play after a tough loss,” Davis said. “But they came out and played hard. They got after it. We were unselfish and we did a nice job of  getting easy points in transition.”

Downs got plenty of help from Tazah “Z” Hardin (15 points), a blur who shot a lot of layups, and Riley Corriher (11 points), who made several soft set shots. There was a point in the game when Corriher had 11 points and North still had 10.

“We all got off to a lot better start today,” Downs said.

Keara McClary took a charge, Whitley Arnott grabbed rebounds, and the 5-foot twins, Camden and Carsen Carlton, kept the hustle going in the fourth quarter.

Brianna White scored eight points, but the Cavaliers, who were down 18-5 after a quarter and 35-10 at halftime, never offered much resistance.

“I’m still trying to figure  out what’s wrong,  just like everybody else,” North coach Ron Bost. “Maybe we’ll be like that animal that’s  been backed into a corner, and we’ll start fighting back. I still think we can make some noise.”

North will take on East Rowan in a 9 a.m. game today for seventh place.

NORTH ROWAN (25) —White 8, Holland 3, Sherrill 3, Shoaf 3, Godfrey 3, Evans 2, Robinson 2, Cain 1, Joyner, Davis, Hopkins.

SOUTH ROWAN (63) — Downs 23, Hardin 15, Corriher 11, Arnott 5, Car. Carlton 4, Rollins 2, McClary 2, Spratt 1, Lowery, Wagner, Shell, Cam. Carlton.

N. Rowan                   5         5    7      8  — 25

S. Rowan                     18     17    25   3   —63