Staff report

OLIN — Two trips to Olin in a four-day span?

That’s not ideal, but East Rowan’s girls basketball team managed to end their season on an upbeat note on Tuesday.

They didn’t win at North Iredell, but they played a whole lot better the second time around in a 47-34 North Piedmont Conference Tournament loss.

Last Friday, it was a 69-37 blowout, and East coach Kevin Holland was as disappointed as he’s been all season.

“We played much harder and much better this time,” Holland said.

Rebounding was an issue for sixth-seeded East in almost every game. Post-less East is a lot shorter than average, while third-seeded North Iredell (6-4) is a lot taller than most, with 6-footers Jewel Allen and Alli Goodin.

A three-point second quarter dumped East into a 25-13 halftime hole. It was hard to climb all the way out.

“We had their lead down to single digits a couple of times, but we couldn’t get over the hump,” Holland said.  “They just got too many rebounds. And they shot too many free throws.”

North Iredell shot 17 free ones. East shot four.

Skylin Guill scored 13 for North Iredell. Bailey Barzee scored 10. North Iredell, which has played very well in recent weeks, advanced to play at West Rowan at 5:30 p.m. in a Wednesday semifinal. North Iredell split with the Falcons in the regular season.

East (1-11) got most of its offense from junior Mac Misenheimer and freshman Hannah Waddell. They scored 12 points each.

Misenheimer led East with 8.2 points per game this season. Waddell averaged 7.5 and Clara Beaver averaged 7.4. Madie Honeycutt averaged 6.3 per game.

East’s season high offensively was 48 points, and the Mustangs averaged a modest 33.8 per game.

It was tough for them if a game turned into a track meet, The 61-23 and 73-29 losses to a very strong Carson team skewed the year-end stats some, but East competed well in most of its games.

Certainly the Mustangs were more competitive than was expected when this shortened season began with no seniors, no natural post players, one returning varsity player (Honeycutt) and a host of new faces.

Potentially, everyone comes back for East next season, which played a lot of games with three players sidelined by injuries.

“Except for Statesville, we played everyone tougher the second time we faced them,” Holland said. “I was proud of how the girls worked this year.”

 

EAST (34) — Misenheimer 12, Waddell 12, Beaver 5, Honeycutt 4, Peeler 1, Whicker, Faavesi, Featherstone.

N. IREDELL (47) — Guill 13, Barzee 10, Allen 6, Goodin 6, Anderson 6, Gibson 5, Curlee 1.

E. Rowan    10    3   16   12   — 34

N. Iredell    15   10   12   10  — 47