From staff reports

Friday games …

GRANITE QUARRY — East Rowan was determined not to lose on a night the gym was named in honor of Jesse Watson, and the Mustangs were able to beat Lake Norman Charter 60-52.

The second quarter was pivotal, as East turned a 13-10 deficit into a 24-18 halftime lead.

The win wraps up a top-three finish in the South Piedmont Conference for the Mustangs. That means an automatic playoff berth. East (18-4, 11-4) finished a season sweep of Lake Norman Charter. The Mustangs won 72-56 when the teams played in Huntersville in January.

Lake Norman Charter may be the league’s best shooting team, so the game plan for the Mustangs was to play man-to-man and take away the 3s. It was a relatively high-scoring game, but East won it with defense. The Knights (13-8, 9-6) were 3-for-16 on 3-pointers and turned it over 27 times.

The risk of playing man-to-man defense is foul trouble. The visitors did shoot a lot of free throws. They made 17 of 30.

Reece Long is a super scorer and poured in 26 points for the Knights, but the Mustangs could live with that, as she needed a lot of shots to do it. She was 8-for-28 from the field, with one 3-pointer. She was 9-for-14 at the foul line.

Abby Courtney added 13 for the Knights.

East Rowan got 15 points from Sadie Featherstone, 11 from Mary Church and 10 from Kady Collins. They’ve been the three scoring leaders all season.

They got help. Isis Smith had nine and Lily Kluttz had eight. Both scored almost twice their average. Those 17 were big.

Ava Alderman and Savannah Wise also got in the scorebook.

The goal now for East is to get a first-round home playoff game.

Lake Norman Charter      13     5    16    18    — 52

East Rowan                       10     14    14    22   — 60

Lake Norman Charter — Long 26, A. Courtney 13, Mercuri 7, Colantonio 2, L. Courtney 2, Kurz 2.

East Rowan — Featherstone 15, Church 11, Collins 10, Smith 9, Kluttz 8, Alderman 4, Wise 3.

•••

CHINA GROVE — Carson beat Concord 66-62 for a South Piedmont Conference victory.

The points were a season high for the Cougars (5-17, 3-11). Their three big scorers all had good games — Allie Martin (19 points), Rylee Hedrick (16) and Julia Burleson (13), and they got some help. Five more Cougars scored, with Caylee Sheets contributing a career-high of seven points.

“Super physical game,” Carson head coach Chloe Monroe said. “We led for most of it, but Concord tied it late. We had three girls foul out, but Brooklyn McBride came in cold off the bench to make the tie-breaking free throws and we were able to close it out.”

All wins are big for the Cougars, but the win over Concord was especially nice. Carson lost 54-52 at Concord in a game the Cougars had every chance to win, but didn’t. This time they closed the deal.

Kaylin Williams scored 25 to lead the Spiders (4-16, 4-10).

Carson —  Martin 19, Hedrick 16, Burleson 13, Sheets 7, Guiton 4, Snow 3, Furr 2, McBride 2.

•••

CONCORD – West Rowan finished strong in a 50-39 South Piedmont Conference loss to Central Cabarrus.

The Falcons were down 19 after three quarters but outscored the Vikings 15-7 in the final quarter.

Sydney Smith scored nine of her 16 points in the fourth quarter. She made three 3-pointers.

Torrin Everhart had a career game with 13 points.

Smith and Everhart are freshmen, so the future looks a lot better for West (1-20, 0-15) than the present.

Central (9-13, 8-6) had a slow start.West led 2-0 after Kennedy Clawson dished to Smith for a layup. Jahneria Hurd scored on a rebound for West’s last lead at 4-2. That’s when the Vikings put together a 15-1 run to take control of the game.

It was 30-15 at halftime.

Daniyah Burton led the Vikings with 17 points. Felicity Arevalo scored 11, and Louella Blanchard had 10.

The Vikings are 31st in the 3A West RPI rankings and are on the bubble for the state playoffs.

West Rowan           5    10    9    15   — 39

Central Cabarrus    17   13   13    7   — 50

WEST scoring — Smith 16, Everhart 13, Hurd 6, Allen 2, Carter 2.

•••

CONCORD — Robinson stayed undefeated in the South Piedmont Conference and wrapped up the league championship  by beating second-place Northwest Cabarrus 39-34.

Northwest led 11-10 at halftime, but the Bulldogs picked up the pace in the third quarter.

Destiny Chambers led the Bulldogs with 20 points. Camri Hobbs had 12 on 5-for-8 shooting.