From staff reports

LEXINGTON — Lexington’s girls basketball team was inspired at home and put up a tough fight against Salisbury in Friday’s 66-49 loss.

It was more competitive than the final score sounds. Lexington was down single digits in the fourth quarter. The Hornets were unable to blow out the Yellow Jackets, a team they smashed 70-36 in their first Central Carolina Conference meeting.

Whistles hurt the Hornets.

MaKayla Noble was in and out of the game with foul trouble and shot-blocker Haley Dalton had to sit for long stretches with fouls before fouling out with almost six minutes left to play.

The Hornets (18-3, 11-0) survived the whistles and the feisty Jackets (11-11, 7-3) and won their sixth in a row. Salisbury is still a game up in the CCC on North Rowan, which has a tough finishing week with Lexington and Salisbury.

Kyla Bryant scored 29 points to lead the Hornets. She worked for an incredible number of free throws and was able to do some serious damage at the foul line.

Noble didn’t have a high-percentage night, but managed to score 13. Icesis Nwafor and Shamya Arnold helped out with 10 points apiece.

Mary Morgan had some huge assists, making great decisions and accurate passes for critical hoops during the stretch run.

The Hornets started slowly, with everyone ice-cold except Bryant. She scored 12 in the first quarter, including five from the foul line, to keep the Hornets afloat.

Noble’s first bucket was an uncontested layup off a steal. It came at the end of the quarter and put Salisbury ahead 16-15, after the Hornets had trailed most of the first eight minutes.

Nwafor’s first bucket was a 3-pointer with 2:15 left in the second quarter. That shot pushed the Hornets to a 31-17 lead. Lexington got back to 32-22, but the Hornets closed the half with a layup by Bryant and a putback by Arnold for 36-22.

Lexington fell behind by 18 in the middle of the third quarter when Noble swooped in for a three-point play, but it still wasn’t over. The Hornets couldn’t apply the knockout punch. Lexington scrapped back to a 47-35 deficit by the end of the quarter.

And then it got tighter.

Lexington got as close as 49-41 with six minutes left in the game and had a good 3-point look that would have cut Salisbury’s lead to five had it fallen.

Salisbury’s lead was 51-41 with 4:30 left  and the Hornets had spread the floor when Morgan drove and hit a cutting Arnold, who made the tough, on-the-move catch on the baseline — and the tough layup.

After Arnold made two clutch free throws, Morgan twice found Nwafor for layups. Those buckets finally put the Yellow Jackets away.

Salisbury    16   20   11   19  — 66

Lexington   15    7     13   14  — 49

Salisbury — Bryant 29, Noble 13, Nwafor 10, Arnold 10, Dalton 2, Morgan 2.

•••

SPENCER — If anyone can get a triple-double with steals as part of the triple, it’s North Rowan’s Bailee Goodlett.

The junior guard had a whopping 13 steals and added 27 points in Friday’s 79-44 Central Carolina Conference win against West Davidson.

Goodlett was credited with nine assists, falling just short of a triple-double.

It was a really good night for a lot of the Cavaliers.

Brittany Ellis made two 3-pointers in the first quarter to help North start rolling. She finished with 19 points and eight rebounds.

Bloom Goodlett had a hot hand and hit four 3-pointers and scored 14 points.  Chloee Stoner had 12 points and six steals.

Stoner and Bloom Goodlett were one point short of their career high.

North (15-6, 9-1) scored 29 points in the first quarter and led comfortably 45-24 at the half.

West Davidson (4-17, 3-7) did show quite a bit of improvement from its first meeting with the Cavaliers. That was a 63-15 romp.

The Cavaliers came into the game ninth in the 1A West RPI rankings.

W. Davidson   12    12   9   11   — 44

North Rowan  29   16   23  17  — 79

North — Bailee Goodlett 27, Ellis 19, Bloom Goodlett 14, Stoner 12, A. Elder 3, Sherrill 2, Stockton 1, D. Elder 1.