Eagles avenge hardwood loss to Aycock's girls

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on December 10, 2014 1:48 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- When Lexi Mercer saw the yellow light go up from the Rosewood bench she knew she had to be a little bit more cautious.

After two players fouled out last week because they didn't know how many fouls they had, the Eagles used cards to let their players know when they were in foul trouble.

Yellow meant three fouls.

Red meant four.

Mercer saw the yellow card held up in the third period. Right around that time, with Rosewood up by double-digits, coach Rick Grantham told his girls to take their foot off the throttle and slow the game down, due to injuries and foul trouble.

Led by Mercer and Krystal Yelverton, Rosewood held on to win 52-42 over county foe Charles B. Aycock on Tuesday.

"We did some funky stuff tonight we usually don't do," Grantham said. "We came off the throttle a little bit. I had to tell them to slow down and I don't think they've ever heard those words. We had some injuries, some illness and fouls so we had some girls playing more minutes than they usually do, so we had to (slow the game down)."

Less than a week ago, Rosewood took a 20-plus-point lead into halftime against CB Aycock that eventually turned into an overtime loss. That game wasn't on their minds Tuesday, and a repeat of that collapse didn't happen.

A methodical offense with balanced scoring, and a stifling defense that forced 19 turnovers helped keep Rosewood in control.

Yelverton played more minutes at the point guard position than normal, but she showed great poise in slowing down the offense, as well as forcing turnovers and getting out in transition. She finished with 14 points and seven steals.

The Eagles also got good minutes off the bench from reserve Alyssa Garrison. She finished with eight points and two steals and no turnovers. She also out ran everyone the court after grabbing a rebound and going coast to coast for the layup in the second half.

It was a play that summed up the evening for CBA.

"We just got out-hustled for 32 minutes tonight," Golden Falcons head coach Roy Harrell said.

Those extra minutes from Yelverton and Garrison will prove critical for a team that wants to make another deep run in the playoffs this year.

"That's really going to help us because they build up confidence and we build up confidence as a team when they come in and play well like that," Mercer said after finishing with 16 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and four steals. "We're definitely not used to playing like that, but it's good for us to be able to."

Grantham echoed his star.

"Sometimes you have to be prudent, there that's a good word ... use that word," Grantham said. "Sometimes you have to be prudent and slow it down a little bit. I'm not a real smart guy, but every now and then I get one right."