High school girls basketball: Evans scores 32 in Salisbury win over Falcons

Published 12:45 pm Friday, January 31, 2025

Staff report

SALISBURY  — Torese Evans scored a career-best 32 points, as Salisbury beat West Rowan 64-45 in a non-conference girls basketball game played on Thursday night in the Salisbury gym.

The Hornets were able to bounce back from their toughest defeat of the season — Tuesday’s 45-44 Central Carolina Conference heartbreaker at West Davidson that was the first loss by Salisbury to the Green Dragons since 1988. The Hornets had beaten the Green Dragons 45 times in a row.

Evans, the most experienced player the Hornets have, made sure that nothing crazy happened against a West Rowan team that has won only once this season. Evans made two 3-pointers, nine 2s and eight free throws to spark the Hornets (9-7).

“I don’t know what I’d do without her,” Salisbury head coach Lakai Brice said. “She’s done everything we’ve asked her to do, not only scoring, but leading this team.”

Evans has averaged 19.3 points per game during January and is second in the county in scoring with 15.1 points per game.

These Hornets don’t bear much resemblance to the powerful teams that had D-I players Kyla Bryant and MaKayla Noble and won state championships. They miss a lot of layups and free throws, so they have to compensate with effort. They had 26 steals against the Falcons, five of them by Evans, Janiyah Fomond also had five steals.

Mariana Zapata made two 3-pointers and scored 12 points. Gabbi Fatovic got enough transition buckets to score 10. Keaira Spruill blocked three shots.

Evans had a 3-pointer and a three-point play early, as Salisbury jumped out 8-3 on the Falcons, but West (1-16) came back and led 13-12 after a quarter. Salisbury got 10 points from Evans in the second quarter to take a 26-19 lead at the half.

Zapata made her 3s in the third quarter as the Hornets broke the game open.

Jamiela Allen scored 10 for West. She did most of her damage in the fourth quarter. Jahneria Hurd had her best game of the season with nine points. Sydney Smith and Jayden Carter scored eight each.

West Rowan    13    6     8    18   — 45

Salisbury          12     14   20  18  — 64

West — Allen 10, Hurd 9, Smith 8, Carter 8, Clawson 5, Hoffner 2, Sawyer 2, Everhart 1.

Salisbury — Evans 32, Zapata 12, Fatovic 10, Spruill 4, Fomond 3, Myers 2, Pearson-Hasty 1.