Staff report

GRANITE QUARRY — It was a good night for West Rowan’s girls basketball team.

The Falcons not only took care of their own business on Wednesday with a solid 62-37  win at East Rowan, they got some help in the South Piedmont Conference standings from South Rowan’s upset of Northwest Cabarrus.

West (12-4, 7-2) is now in second place and has won six in a row since it was upset on the road by Lake Norman Charter.

Lauren Arnold keyed West’s latest victory. She scored 23 for the game and had 16 in the first half. The smooth sophomore matched the production of East’s team during the first two quarters. The Falcons took a comfortable 33-16 lead to the break.

Arnold is about as consistent as it gets. In West’s 16 games, she’s scored in double figures 15 times. Her season low is nine.  This was the fourth time she’s scored in the 20s.

De’Mya Phifer and Emma Clarke scored 10 each.

Makaylah Tenor, who specializes in, in-your-grill defense, added eight points.

Many teams were playing the second game of back-to-backs on Wednesday, including East and West.

West handled it easily.

“It was a good team defensive effort and we worked the ball well on offense,” West head coach Ashley Poole said. “And Lauren had a good game.”

It was the 139th win for Poole, who is in her ninth season. That’s the highest total for the West girls program.

Madie Honeycutt (10), Hannah Waddell (nine) and Peyton Whicker (seven) did most of the scoring for East (4-12, 1-8).

West won 72-35 when the teams played in the Christmas tournament, but this was their first conference clash of the season.

West is sixth in the 3A West RPI rankings.  East ranks 38th out of 55 3A West teams.

W. Rowan   16   17  18   11  — 62

E. Rowan    10    6   12    9  — 37

WEST — Arnold 23, Phifer 10, Clarke 10, Tenor 8, Edwards 6, Durham 4, Page 2.

EAST — Honeycutt 10, Waddell 9, Whicker 7, Misenheimer 5, Cox 2, Collins 2, Beaver 2.