Rosewood girls prevail in Grantham's coaching debut

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on November 27, 2013 1:48 PM

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RYAN HANCHETT

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Rosewood started out red hot in Rick Grantham's debut as the new Eagles' head coach Tuesday evening.

Lexi Mercer dropped in 22 points during a season-opening, 61-53 defeat of North Johnston.

"I am proud of the girls for how they played tonight," Grantham said. "I thought we looked really good early and then struggled a little bit at times in the second half, but overall I was very pleased with what I saw."

The Eagles raced to a 20-5 lead after one quarter and led by 15 at halftime.

North Johnston tried to make the game a half-court affair in the second half and Chandler Hines shot the Panthers back into contention with 10 of her game-high 23 points. Jamie Johnson's 3-pointer cut Rosewood's advantage to three points in the fourth quarter.

The Eagles regrouped and stopped the Panthers from getting any closer. A basket by Mercer, a jumper by Alicia Burns and a pair of free throws by Krystal Yelverton in the final two minutes sealed the victory.

"I was curious to see how we would react if the game was close in the fourth quarter," Grantham said. "I thought our girls did a very good job of sticking to the plan offensively and not panicking."

Yelverton added 14 points in the win. Burns finished with 12 and Desirae Baker rounded out the Eagles in double-figures with 11 points.

"Obviously after the first game you are going to see things that you need to work on as a team," Grantham said. "I think we need to work on scoring in traffic a little bit and we need to fix a few things in our full-court defense, but those things we can adjust at practice."

Rosewood (1-0 overall) visits South Johnston on Dec. 4.