From staff reports

MOUNT ULLA – West Rowan’s girls are good enough defensively to discombobulate opponents.

Lake Norman Charter has a pretty good team, mostly seasoned seniors, but the Knights (7-5, 2-3) were wrecked by the Falcons in Friday’s South Piedmont Conference game.

West led 17-2 after a quarter and by 39-8 at halftime and won 63-23 with a running clock.

Lake Norman Charter committed 27 turnovers, shot 28 percent and failed to make a 3-pointer.

Despite the running clock, West (11-0, 4-0) was able to put four in double figures.

De’Mya Phifer scored 16, Tiara Thompson had 12, and Jamecia Huntley and Mya Edwards scored 10 each.

Lauren Arnold’s double-figures streak ended at 10 games, but it didn’t matter much.

LN Charter    2    6    9    6    — 23

W. Rowan    17  22   20   4  — 63

West scoring — Phifer 16, Thompson 12, Huntley 10, Edwards 10, Arnold 7, Clarke 6, Tenor 2.

•••

GRANITE QUARRY —  Central Cabarrus’ 61-57 overtime win against East Rowan defied description.

East trailed the South Piedmont Conference game by 23 points in the fourth quarter, but a flood of missed layups and missed free throws by the Vikings left the door open, and East scored 32 points in a wild fourth quarter to came all the way back to force overtime.

East played without Mary Church (knee) and Lindsey Cook (ankle), and for three quarters, Central’s relentless defensive pressure flustered the Mustangs into an incredible number of turnovers.

Katherine Coley made a 3-pointer for the Vikings (9-5, 4-1) to close the third quarter. At that point, Central was in control 43-20, and East (7-6, 3-1) had provided no reason to believe there was any chance of a comeback.

But a couple of things happened in the fourth quarter in addition to a total collapse by Central’s offense. East got an awful lot of energy from Peyton Whicker and an awful lot of buckets from Hannah Waddell.

Waddell is the Mustang you have to keep track of. The Vikings kept losing her.

Waddell’s 3-pointer with 7:25 remaining made it 45-25. That’s where the Mustangs’ comeback started.

East was 18 down at 47-29 after buckets by Kady Collins and Addie Plott.

Then Waddell got back-to-back, wide-open looks from the right side, from in front of the East bench. She splashed both of those 3-pointers, eight seconds apart. It was 47-35 with 4:24 left, and the Vikings were starting to feel some heat to finish things off.

And East’s defensive intensity was picking up.

Plott scored off an offensive rebound. Then Whicker drove for two. Then Whicker jumped into the passing lane for a steal, and she’s faster while dribbling then a lot of people who are just running. Her layup made it 47-41 with 2:55 left to play.

Central got a hoop inside to end a drought for 49-41, but Whicker got the ball to Waddell. This time the Vikings were all over Waddell, but her twisting 3-pointer from the left corner, her fourth 3-pointer of the quarter, swished and she was fouled on the play. Her free throw made it 49-45 with 1:52 on the clock.

Lily Kluttz hit a 3-pointer to get East within 49-48 with 1:30 left.

Taylor Smith split two free throws for the Vikings with a minute left.

Then Waddell flipped in a shot in the lane — left-handed — for a 50-all tie.

Smith scored on a transition layup for the Vikings with just 3.2 seconds left, but Central was hit with a technical foul for celebrating too enthusiastically.

Waddell made the technicals for 52-all to set up the overtime. Waddell scored 17 of her 26 points in the fourth quarter.

The amazing thing was that as shaky as Central was in the fourth quarter and as much momentum as East had going to overtime, the Vikings still managed to win the game.

It was mostly Smith, a freshman guard. She scored five points and made the plays in the overtime.

East lost the game at the foul line. The Mustangs missed 21 free throws.

“We’ve got to do better at that,” East coach Bri Evans said. “But I can’t be mad at them right now. Not after the fight we showed in the fourth quarter.”

Central Cabarrus 11     14  18   9    9   — 61

East Rowan          3     10   7   32     5  — 57

East scoring — Waddell 26, Whicker 9, Plott 6, L. Kluttz 5, Collins 4, Miller 4, Boardley 3.

•••

LANDIS — It was a 2-0 week for South Rowan’s girls basketball team.

A friendly schedule didn’t hurt, and the Raiders took care of business in Friday’s 62-40 win over Concord (1-11, 0-5).

“It was a good, fun team win,” South coach Alex Allen said.

The offensive production was a season high for South, which picked up its first South Piedmont Conference victory. Quite a few girls scored for the first time this season or for the first time in weeks.

Eleven girls got in the scorebook for the Raiders (4-8, 1-3), who led 21-2 after the first quarter.

Madilyn Cherry led with 17 points. Ari Alston scored a career-high 10, while Kynlee Dextraze had eight.

Concord  2   13   6   19   — 40

South     21   18  12   11   — 62

South scoring — Cherry 17, Alston 10, Dextraze 8, Morgan 5, Atwell 5, Ritchie 4, Beaver 4, Berry 3, Childers 2, Howell 2, Alvarado 2.

•••

CHINA GROVE — It’s been a struggle all season for Carson’s girls to score.

They played Friday without leading scorer Allie Martin, so the struggle got worse in a 56-16 South Piedmont Conference loss to Northwest Cabarrus.

The Trojans led 13-2 after a quarter and by 32-3 at halftime.

“We made 45 turnovers,” Carson coach Brooke Stouder said. “Northwest was merciful.”

Re’ale Walton scored 20 for the Trojan (7-5, 3-2).

Julia Burleson led the Cougars with six points.

Carson (2-11, 1-3) has been held under 20 points four times and averages 30.

NW Cabarrus   13   19   10   14   — 56

Carson              2      1     8      5   — 16

Carson scoring — Burleson 6, Steele 3, Carpenter 2, Furr 2, McCubbins 2, Locklear 1.

•••

TYRO — North Rowan’s girls crushed West Davidson 63-15 in Central Carolina Conference action.

Bailee Goodlett had 25 points at halftime, but the Cavaliers showed mercy. She played a little in the third quarter and sat down with 28 points, eight steals and four assists.

The junior boosted her career total to 980 points.

Brittany Ellis scored 14 for the Cavaliers (9-3, 3-0).

Chloee Stoner made three 3-pointers. Bloom Goodlett had nine points and five assists.

Krisstyle Stockton and Adrionna King led the rebounding.

West Davidson (2-12, 1-2) trailed 25-4 after a quarter and by 51-7 at halftime. The second half was played with a running clock.

North                  25   26   12   0   — 63

W. Davidson    4       3      4    4   — 15

North scoring — Bailee Goodlett 28, Ellis 14, Bloom Goodlett 9, Stoner 9, Stockton 3.

•••

SALISBURY — MaKayla Noble made three 3-pointers and scored 11 points while people were still finding their seats.

Noble’s sensational start got Salisbury’s girls rolling, and they easily handled Lexington 70-36 on Friday for another Central Carolina Conference win.

Noble finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Kyla Bryant scored 24 points for the Hornets (11-2, 4-0) and added six rebounds and four assists.

Bryant had nine points in the second quarter, as the Hornets took a 33-17 halftime lead over the Yellow Jackets (6-8, 3-1), who had been undefeated in the league..

Haley Dalton had five blocks. Mary Morgan had six points, six rebounds and three steals.

The Hornets got 15 points from the bench crew and had their biggest offensive production of the season.

Lexington      6       11       4   15    — 36

Salisbury      17      16      13  24   —  70

Salisbury scoring — Bryant 24, Noble 17, Evans 7, Morgan 6, Arnold 4, Nwafor 4, Dalton 4, Spruill 4.