CHAPEL HILL — Coming into Monday nights 3A Big Eight Conference Tournament opener with Chapel Hill, the Northwood girls basketball team was on the bubble of making the upcoming 3A NCHSAA state playoffs.
Pencil in the Lady Chargers.
In its most impressive performances of the season, Northwood routed Chapel Hill 48-32 over in Orange County to all but sure itself a state playoff berth.
Cameron Vernon was more than proud of his young Chargers after the big win.
“This was by far our best game of the season,” commented Vernon. “It started on the defensive end and we did a really nice job of not allowing them to dribble penetrate which happened the first game we played this season that Chapel Hill won 60-54.
Vernon continued by saying that defensive effort by his club carried over to the offensive end.
“I though the defense carried over on offense and our execution on the offensive end was great. We only had 7 turnovers and our guards Rae McClarty, Jy Smith, Mckenna Snively, Myla Marve, and Natalie Bell did outstanding taking care of the ball.”
For Vernon, the continued progress of his young squad is coming at just the right time.
“We seem to be coming around and it’s a great time for that. We have a real tough test against Hillside and hopefully we can play as well as we did Monday night.”
On Monday night in Chapel Hill, the Lady Chargers broke open a 24-20 lead at the half with a decisive 16-2 spurt in the third period. Smith had six points in the frame including a pair of huge momentum shifting treys, while Harris chipped in six points to the NW cause, and Chandler Adams four more as the locals raced in front 40-22.
The Tigers never could recover.
Northwood scored just eight points in the fourth, including four apiece by Marve and Bell, but it was more than enough as the locals cruised to the easy 48-32 victory.
Riley Corcoran had five points for Chapel Hill in the fourth.
Earlier in the game, the contest was back and forth as Harris canned four points for the Chargers in the first period, and McClarty a trey, as NW went up 10-8 after the opening eight minutes. Morgan Korfas had five points on the strength of a three-pointer in the period.
Northwood used a 14-12 spurt in the second behind four points from Adams and another trey from McClarty to go up by four at the intermission. Corcoran had six points for Chapel Hill in the frame while Laney Beale chipped in four.
Harris led all scorers with 12 points for the Chargers while Adams chipped in nine points and six rebounds, and Kaya Hill six boards.
The Tigers were paced by 11 and 10 points respectively from Beale and Corcoran.