HS girls basketball roundup: East, Salisbury advance; seasons end for Carson, South
Published 5:41 pm Tuesday, February 18, 2025
- East Rowan's Mary Church reached the 1000-point milestone.
From staff reports
Monday tournament games…
GRANITE QUARRY — The long journey to 1,000 career points came in the best way possible for East Rowan senior Mary Church.
Church reached the milestone in a win and she reached it at home.
Church, who overcame missing most of her sophomore season with a knee injury, needed seven for 1,000, but there wasn’t any 1,000-point anxiety. She got 22 in leading the Mustangs to a 73-32 blowout of Concord in the first round of the South Piedmont Conference Tournament. The win was the 20th for the third-seeded Mustangs (20-5). They could get a first-round home game in the playoffs. They are on the bubble for that.
“That was our first 40-point win of the season,” East head coach Bri Evans said. “Proud of Mary and proud of the 20 wins, This team has come a long way from where we were a few years ago.”
Sixth-seeded Concord finished 4-19. Three seniors ended their careers.
Eleven Mustangs scored. Kady Collins scored 13. Lilly Kluttz had a season-high 10.
EAST scoring — Church 22, Collins 13, Kluttz 10, Featherstone 8, Smith 5, Miller 4, Alderman 4, Ewing 3, Wise 2, Quick 2.
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LEXINGTON — Salisbury’s girls bounced back from Friday’s loss to North Rowan and beat West Davidson 51-40 in a semifinal game in the Central Carolina Conference Tournament.
The third-seeded Hornets (13-9) split with the second-seeded Green Dragons (10-12) during the regular season. West Davidson ended a 45-game losing streak against the Hornets with the win in Tyro, but Salisbury refused to lose the Green Dragons twice in a row.
“We did everything well except shoot free throws,” Salisbury head coach Lakai Brice said. “We played three bigs and played zone. We did a good job against (West Davidson star) Wyatt Cooper. She’s really good, but we held her to 15. Janiyah Fomond did a great job in the middle of the zone.”
Torese Evans scored 19 to spark the Hornets. Mariana Zapata made three 3-pointers and scored 11. Fomond added 10.
Salisbury 16 13 9 13 — 51
W. Davidson 13 11 5 11 — 40
SHS scoring — Evans 19, Zapata 11, Fomond 10, Spruill 7, McNeely 4.
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CONCORD — South Rowan’s season ended quietly with a blowout loss at Robinson in the first round of the South Piedmont Conference Tournament.
The top-seeded Bulldogs rolled 64-23 over the eighth-seeded Raiders (7-16), who lost their last six games.
Camri Hobbs scored 23 points for the Bulldogs (21-4) on 11-for-14 shooting.
South was down 12-0 when Ella Morgan hit a 3-pointer to put the Raiders on the board in the middle of the first quarter. It was 26-4 after a quarter.
Danica Krieg made two 3s and scored eight for the Raiders. Robinson held Kynlee Dextraze to two points, but she finished her career with more than 900.
South Rowan 4 7 2 10 — 23
Robinson 26 14 14 14 — 64
SOUTH scoring — Krieg 8, Fisher 4, White 4, Morgan 3, Dextraze 2, Pharr 2.
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CONCORD — Carson came close to upsetting Northwest Cabarrus on the last night of the regular-season, but the Cougars ran into a much more intense and focused group of Trojans in the first round of the South Piedmont Conference Tournament.
The second-seeded Trojans (20-4) used aggressive defense to pound the seventh-seeded Cougars 52-31.
Northwest jumped out to a 12-1 lead before Laila Furr made Carson’s first field goal. about a minute into the second quarter.
The lead was 21-3 before Julia Burleson made Carson’s first 3-pointer.
Northwest led 22-8 at the half and cruised from there. Mackenzie Ortscheid scored 19 for the Trojans.
Carson (6-19) got 11 points from Allie Martin and nine from Rylee Hedrick.
Carson 1 7 12 11 — 31
NWC 10 12 13 17 — 52
CARSON scoring — Martin 11, Hedrick 9, Burleson 5, Furr 4, Benfield 2.
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HARRISBURG — Seventh-seeded A.L. Brown ended a 4-21 season with a 76-18 loss at second-seeded Hickory Ridge in the first round of the Greater Metro Conference Tournament.
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HUNTERSVILLE — Myajan Nix scored 20 points to lead fifth-seeded Central Cabarrus to a 62-51 win against fourth-seeded Lake Norman Charter in the first round of the SPC Tournament.
Abby Courtney scored 22 for the Knights.
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LEXINGTON — Lily Ervin scored 17 points to lead top-seeded Lexington to a 56-47 win against fourth-seeded East Davidson in a CCC Tournament semifinal.