PITTSBORO — Outscoring Person 20-9 in a pivotal second quarter, Northwood opened up a 28-16 halftime advantage and went on to maintain a double-digit lead for most of the second half en route to galloping past the Lady Rockets 54-41 in the second round of the NCHSAA 2020 Women’s 3A East basketball state playoffs Thursday night in Lewis Norwood Gymnasium.
Advancing to the third round of post-season competition for the first time since 2015, the sixth-seed Lady Chargers won their 13th consecutive game to improve to 22-5 for the year, including a 14-1 mark at home. Northwood traveled to Fayetteville Saturday evening to face third-seed E.E. Smith (28-1), while 22nd-seed Person ended its season at 16-9.
Chandler Adams recorded a game-high 14 points for the Lady Chargers, while TeKeyah Bland and Natalie Bell tallied 13 apiece, with Bell tossing in four three-pointers. Northwood connected on 36 percent (14-of-39) of its field goal attempts and held a 26-24 advantage in rebounds while committing 15 turnovers.
Aaliyah Williams fired in four treys to lead the Lady Rockets with a dozen points, while Aaliyah Jones notched 11 and Nydriya Marner added 10. Person shot 30 percent (13-of-43) from the floor while turning the ball over 22 times.
“We knew Person wanted an up-tempo game looking for a lot of transition points, and early-on we weren’t patient with the ball and took quick shots,” said Lady Chargers’ coach Cameron Vernon. “But once we settled down we began to utilize our height advantage to get the ball inside to Chandler and TeKeyah, who dominated in the paint while managing to draw fouls and get to the line. Our defense also did a good job handling Person’s high pick-and-roll attack after the first quarter to force them into taking outside shots while curtailing their fast break opportunities.”
Lady Rockets’ coach Jay Carmichael said that after getting off to a good start his team had trouble trying to contain Northwood’s inside game.
“Their size bothered us in the lane and we gave them too many open looks around the basket while letting them control the pace of the game,” Carmichael said. “When they weren’t hurting us inside they hit some three-pointers in the first half that let them establish a good lead, and even though we held our own offensively in the second half we couldn’t overcome the advantage they built before intermission.”
Person dashed out to a 7-2 lead midway through the initial period before the Lady Chargers closed the stanza with a 6-0 spurt to seize the advantage for good on an Adams charity toss with 1:07 left in the first quarter.
Following a pair of Adams layups and Bland’s put-back off the right baseline that helped Northwood fashion a 15-8 lead with 6:40 remaining in the second period, the Lady Rockets trimmed their deficit to four less than two minutes later on a Jones foul shot and Alexzia Thompson’s jumper in the lane.
But two Bland free throws and back-to-back Bell treys from the right wing in the next minute-and-a-half allowed the Lady Chargers to expand their advantage to 23-11 prior to the winners maintaining a 12-point lead at the break.
After Person pulled within 32-23 on Kayleigh Clarke’s lane jumper with 1:54 to go in the third quarter, Northwood rebuilt a 12-point advantage (36-24) by the end of the frame on the strength of two foul shots each by McKenna Snively and Adams.
The Lady Rockets once again closed to within nine at 44-35 on a Williams three-pointer from the right corner with 3:55 remaining to play before Bell’s trey from beyond the top of the key a minute later sparked a 10-6 game-ending run by the Lady Chargers.