Staff report

LANDIS — West Rowan’s boys basketball team rallied from a 13-point deficit and beat South Rowan, 76-69, on Wednesday at South.

Both victories for West (2-12) this season have come against the Raiders (1-11).  The Falcons won 60-53 in a  meeting in the Christmas tournament.

Payne Stolsworth made seven 3-pointers and scored 31 points to pace the Falcons. His previous high was 27.

Zack Brawley scored 17 for West, while Davis Tadlock had nine to tie his career high.

Brenden Finger scored a career-best 21 for the Raiders. Braden Graham scored 10.

South came out hot and led 10-0.

West got back to within 15-9 after a quarter, but South stretched its lead to 26-13 midway through the second quarter.

South led 33-30 at halftime.

West finally took the lead in the third quarter and was able to hold on.

The 76 points were a season high for West, while South also had its best offensive game. South had topped 50 points only once this season.

South lost its 10th in a row.

WEST (76) — Stolsworth 31, Brawley 17, Tadlock 9, Moss 7, Joseph 4, Butler 4, Hassard 2, Matthews 2, Ford, Brush.

SOUTH (69) — Finger 21, Graham 10, Carter 8, Hines 8, Jones 6, Dextraze 4, Peacock 4, Thompson 3, Fullard 3, Gaskin 2, Stanley.

West Rowan       9     21    23    23    —  76

South Rowan    15     18    14    22    — 69

 

GIRLS GAME

LANDIS — West Rowan crushed South Rowan in the third-place game in the Christmas tournament, but it was a much tougher win for the Falcons on Wednesday at South.

The Falcons took the non-conference matchup, 73-63.

“We had a much better effort tonight,” South coach Stacy Ellis said.

It was pretty heated.

West head coach Ashley Poole was ejected/disqualified with 5:04 left after two technical fouls  on the West bench.

Janiya Downs made things interesting, getting to the foul line 22 times and scoring 42 points for the Raiders (7-6). That’s a career high and one point short of the school record.

The Catawba signee had set a new career high last week with 40 points against Lexington.

Bethany Rymer had 10 points for South, while Madison McGuire scored six.

West (13-1) had two big scorers with Abigail Wilson getting 25 points and Mary Sobataka scoring 20. Sobataka made four 3-pointers and is closing in on 1,000 career points. She has 967.

West’s Whitley Arnott was playing against former teammates and scored 11. Taylor Poole also had 11 for West.

West led at halftime, 38-29 and was still up by nine after an even third quarter.

South got as close as five points with 4:50 remaining.

WEST (73) — Wilson 25, Sobataka 20, Poole 11, Arnott 11, Blabon 3, Connolly 3.

SOUTH (63) — Downs 42, Rymer 10, McGuire 6, P, Chabala 5, Shell, A. Chabala, Littlejohn, Butler, Harrington.

West Rowan      17   21   15   20   — 73

South Rowan    17    12   13   21   — 63