Staff report

MOUNT ULLA — All-conference voting is an intriguing process, as all the league’s coaches put their collective heads together.

At the all-conference meeting, the ninth-place team and the first-place team are finally on equal footing with equal voting power. The results of these meetings can be political, can be surprising and can be debatable.

That’s been the case for decades.

There are two different approaches to coach of the year voting. Do you vote for the guy or gal who coached the best team and won the league or do you vote for the person who is perceived to have done the most with what they had?

As far as player of the year, usually two or three coaches are pretty certain they had the best player. Voting is rarely unanimous, but the best player on the best team is honored most of the time.

West Rowan’s girls basketball team dominated the 2023-24 South Piedmont Conference totally, thoroughly and completely, not only winning all 16 games, but winning all 16 by at least 25 points. Northwest Cabarrus and Robinson (even minus injured Ella Hobbs) had good teams, but teams that were on a different tier from the Falcons.

When the smoke cleared from the All-SPC voting, West’s top five scorers — all of whom average double figures — were recognized as all-conference. But West did not receive the coach of the year or player of the year honors.

Northwest’s Jarmaine Spruill was voted SPC Coach of the Year. He is well-liked and did a commendable job. He had the second-best talent in the league (after the injury to Robinson’s Hobbs) and coached his team to second place. The Trojans had a strong  season and won 20 games.

Northwest’s Re’Ale Walton, a senior guard, was voted Player of the Year. She’s a very good player, a ball-handler and team leader who scored 13 points per game.

After the 3A West playoff brackets came out, West Rowan head coach Ashley Poole watched a little film of potential second-round opponent North Lincoln, but she knew after five minutes that Northwest Cabarrus would take care of North Lincoln and would be coming to Mount Ulla for a second-round playoff game. She didn’t mind that at all.

Poole will lose no sleep about not being voted coach of the year. She wasn’t the coach of the year in the league last year, either.

But the player of the year vote stung her a little bit.

“Coach of the year never bothers me,” she said. “But player of the year did because I thought one of my girls deserved it. But, to be honest, it bothers me way more than it does them. They are all about team goals and accomplishments.”

West’s 70-40 win against the Trojans on Friday was over quickly.

It was 7-0 when the Trojans took their first timeout. It was 23-9 after a quarter and 44-20 at halftime.

The second-seeded Falcons led by 30 midway through the third quarter. It was 61-25 after Emma Clarke made a 3-pointer to close the quarter.

Leading 69-34 with two minutes left, West (27-1) emptied the bench, and the 15th-seeded Trojans (20-7) reduced the deficit to 30 at the end.

Sophomore Tiara Thompson led the Falcons with 17 points and surpassed 700 for what may become a legendary career.

“She’s definitely our steady hand,” Poole said. “Such a great basketball I.Q. She does the important little things and is one of the best I have coached.”

Clarke (15), De’Mya Phifer (12) and 2023 SPC Player of the Year Lauren Arnold (11) also scored in double figures.

Thompson had the defensive assignment against Walton, who scored five points. MaKaylah Tenor helped out against Walton after Thompson sat down with some fouls.

Post player Kennedy Hilsenroth scored 14 for the Trojans. Jamyah Bell scored 10.

“I thought we played great defense, held them to 25 for three quarters and held the player of the year in our conference to one made basket,” P0ole said.

Next for the Falcons on Tuesday is seventh-seeded Ashe County (18-8). Paige Overcash, a 6-footer and a Division I volleyball recruit, is a standout for Ashe County. Her father is a West Rowan graduate. Ashe County beat North Iredell 64-51 on Friday.

NW Cabarrus   9     11    5      15   — 40

West Rowan    23    21   17     9    — 70

NWC — Hilsenroth 14, Bell 10, Walton 5, Furner 4, A’Lanah Moore 3, McRorie 2, Ortscheid 2.

WEST — Thompson 17, Clarke 15, Phifer 12, Arnold 11, Edwards 8, Tenor 7.