HS girls basketball roundup: East tops Cougars; tight losses for SHS, South

Published 12:13 am Wednesday, January 29, 2025

From staff reports

Tuesday games …

CHINA GROVE — Senior Kady Collins had another strong game with 16 points and led East Rowan to a 58-44 win against Carson in South Piedmont Conference action.

Collins has averaged 16.3 points in her last four games.

All of Collins’ 16 points came in the first half. She scored nine of East’s 13 in the second quarter.

Savannah Wise had one of her best scoring games of the season with 10. East played without Sadie Featherstone, who also is an indoor track athlete. That meant some additional minutes for Wise.

Mary Church and Lily Kluttz added eight points each for the Mustangs (16-4, 8-4).

East won 50-31 at home against the Cougars (4-16, 2-10) early in the season.

“I thought we played better this time,” Carson head coach Chloe Monroe said. “We played very hard, but we had a tough time rebounding against them.”

East started strong and took a 23-13 first-quarter lead.

“Allie Martin got in early foul trouble and that hurt us,” Monroe said.

Carson played the Mustangs evenly in the second quarter, but East is deeper, held the Cougars to nine points in the third quarter and pulled away.

Julia Burleson made two 3-pointers and scored 17 for the Cougars. Rylee Hedrick got 10 of her 11 points in the first half, while Martin scored 10.

East Rowan    23    13   17   5    — 58

Carson             11     13   9    11    — 44

East — Collins 16, Wise 10, Church 8, Kluttz 8, Smith 7, Stepp 4, Phifer 3, Miller 2.

Carson — Burleson 17, Hedrick 11, Martin 10, Sheets 4, McBride 2.

•••

TYRO — Wyatt Cooper scored 27 points, including a decisive stick-back at the end, as West Davidson beat Salisbury 45-44 in an exciting Central Carolina Conference game.

When the Hornets smashed the Green Dragons 66-38 in Salisbury in December, they were able to hold Cooper to 11 points, but the people guarding her got in foul trouble in the rematch, and Cooper can make free throws all night long. She sank nine as the Green Dragons moved into a tie for second place with the Hornets.

Cooper is 5-foot-9 and doesn’t sky, but she has exceptional hands and instincts and got most of her points in the paint. All of her field goals were 2s.

Torese Evans did her best to lead the Hornets. She had an incredible number of steals and scored 20 points, but Salisbury’s missed layups, missed free throws and missed boxouts proved too much to overcome.

After an even first quarter, the Hornets (8-7, 4-2) appeared to be taking control in the second quarter. Salisbury peaked, up 10, with a 21-11 lead five minutes before halftime following a three-point play by Mariana Zapata and a rebound hoop by Janiyah Fomond.

West Davidson (7-10, 4-2) could have collapsed right there, but the Green Dragons scored six straight to get back in the game. Salisbury led 26-20 at halftime.

West Davidson started the second half strong and grabbed some small leads, but Evans had a flurry at the end of the third quarter to put Salisbury back on top, 34-31.

With 2:10 left in the game, the Green Dragons led 40-36, but Evans banked in a straight-on 3-pointer to make it a one-point game. A steal and layup by Evans put Salisbury ahead 41-40, and the Hornets forced another turnover that led to a layup by Gabbi Fatovic for a 43-40 lead with 1:13 left.

With 39 seconds left, Evans came up with another steal, got fouled and made one of her free throws. Now the Hornets were up four and very close to escaping Crim Court with a victory.

If the Hornets could have grabbed a defensive rebound or two it was over, but they couldn’t. With 17 seconds left, Cooper sliced between several defenders and scored as she was fouled. Her free throw cut Salisbury’s lead to 44-43.

Evans, who plays 32 minutes in every close game, missed two free throws with 16.5 seconds left. The Green Dragons rebounded and ran, hoping to score before the Hornets could set their defense. West Davidson missed twice, but Cooper grabbed the second miss in the lane and scored as the clock ticked under five seconds. Time expired before the Hornets could get the ball down the court.

Salisbury          9    17   8   10 — 44

W. Davidson    9    11  11    14  — 45

SHS scoring — Evans 20, Fatovic 10, Fomond 4, Spruill 4, Zapata 3, Myers 2, McNeely 1.

•••

CONCORD — Robinson hasn’t lost in the South Piedmont Conference and West Rowan hasn’t won an SPC game yet, so it figured to be a mismatch.

And it was.

The Bulldogs (15-4, 11-0) led 40-12 at halftime and romped 64-20 in a running-clock game. Cambri Hobbs, who had 40 last week against Lake Norman Charter, got most of her 18 points in the second quarter.

Sydney Smith led the Falcons (1-15, 0-11) with seven points.

Smith is West’s leading scorer for the season. Jamiela Allen, who also averages double figures, did not play.

West’s best quarter was the first. The Falcons got down 10-0 at the outset, but got back to 16-9 by the end of the quarter. Jayden Carter made four early free throws.

West Rowan    9     3   4   4  — 20

Robinson         16  24   15  9   — 64

West scoring — Smith 7, Everhart 4, Carter 4, Agnant 3, Hurd 2.

•••

CONCORD — South Rowan played about as well as it can and had Northwest Cabarrus in serious trouble before a late surge by the second-place Trojans produced a 40-34 South Piedmont Conference victory.

“Really proud of the effort that we had tonight,” South head coach Alex Allen said. “We really fought. We competed for 32 minutes.”

It did not start well at all for the Raiders (7-11, 4-8), as they went five minutes without scoring at the outset. Meghan Eagle finally made two free throws to end South’s drought, and Northwest wasn’t exactly lighting it up either. When Marjah White tossed in a 3-pointer for the Raiders, it was 7-all.

Northwest led 19-18 at the half.

Both teams had a rough time offensively in the third quarter. Danica Krieg made a short jumper off an inbounds play for a 26-25 South lead going to the fourth quarter.

McKenzie Menius got a bucket inside and a deflection by Eagle led to a textbook 2-on-1 fast break by Ella Morgan and Eagle for a 30-25 South lead, and even the most doubtful South fan started to believe the Raiders were going to pull off one of the biggest upsets of the season. There was 7:25 on the clock. That’s where the Raiders peaked.

South would have won, but that’s when Mackenzie Ortscheid took over for the Trojans (15-3, 10-1). Ortscheid is an aggressive scorer. She posted up on an inbounds play, took the pass and barreled right through Krieg. Both players hit the deck on the collision. It easily could have been called a charge, but the officials deemed it a block. That call was the turning point in the game.

Ortscheid’s free throws cut South’s lead to 30-27. Then she got her hands on a loose ball rolling across the lane and stuck it in. Then she made a steal and two free throws to give the Trojans a 31-30 lead.

South’s last lead was provided by Kynlee Dextraze. She made it 32-31 with four minutes to go.

But Ortscheid out-fought several Raiders for an offensive rebound and stuck it in at the 3:39 mark to put Northwest ahead to stay.

After Ava Ibanez made a free throw to put Northwest up by two points, Dajenae Willoughby had a back-breaking steal and layup for the Trojans off the press.

Ortscheid and Marisa Furner, who made seven free throws, scored 13 each for the Trojans in the low-scoring game.

Dextraze led South with eight points. Avery Fisher scored seven.

South Rowan     9    9    8    8    — 34

NW Cabarrus    7    12   6   15     — 40

South — Dextraze 8, Fisher 7, Eagle 6, Krieg 6, Menius 4, White 3.

NWC — Furner 13, Ortscheid 13, Ibanez 7, Willoughby 4, Bonanno 3.

•••

MOORESVILLE — Lake Norman’s powerful squad led A.L. Brown 44-0 at halftime in a Greater Metro Conference game and won 59-7.