Rosewood girls closer to league crown

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on February 11, 2014 1:48 PM

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WARSAW -- Goal No. 1 is almost done.

Now if only Mother Nature would cooperate.

Rosewood moved one step closer to the Carolina 1-A Conference regular-season championship with a 69-48 triumph over James Kenan at Harmon Gymnasium on Monday evening.

The Eagles (18-1 overall, 11-0 Carolina) could have clinched a share of the title today against Neuse Charter, but impending inclement weather forced Wayne County Public Schools officials to cancel class for today.

No make-up date has been announced.

"It was a normal game, we played hard," first-year RHS head coach Rick Grantham said. "Callie (Thornton) was sick last night. Lexi (Mercer) was sick last night. What can you do?

"I thought their best was pretty dag-gum good."

Mercer torched the nets 32 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season. Alicia Burns collected 13 points, while sparkplug guard Krystal Yelverton contributed 11 points, five assists, five steals and three rebounds.

Thornton had six boards and two assists.

The Tigers (12-5, 8-3) sprinted to a 7-2 lead early in the openng quarter. The No. 5-ranked Eagles scored 20 of the next 24 points as foul trouble forced a pair of JK players -- leading scorer Dezarae Phillips and Nikki Judge -- to join head coach Wendy Lanier on the bench.

Rosewood led 42-20 at intermission.

"We got off to a slow start, were going to play zone to conserve some energy," said Grantham, whose team has four games on tap this week.

"I don't like to do it, I shouldn't have done it. Once we flipped to the man (defense), we were a little more active, got a few run-outs. The game was a little bit slower than we needed it to be."

The Tigers matched their first-half offensive output with a 20-point, third-quarter effort. Phillips tallied nine points and guard Christy Debnam drained a timely 3-pointer, which closed the gap to 53-40.

James Kenan, however, fell victim to a 4 1/2-minute scoring drought and Phillips fouled out with 4:48 remaining in the game. Phillips finished with 14 points, including 11 in the second half.

Rosewood cruised from there and claimed its 14th consecutive victory. The Eagles, who forced the Tigers into 22 turnovers, improved to 10-0 in true road games this season.