Rosewood girls scratch off one more goal

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on March 5, 2015 1:48 PM

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LAKE WACCAMAW -- Wearing his normal backpack and holding a bottle of water, Rosewood head basketball coach Rick Grantham exited from the noisy locker room.

He grinned once the creaking door closed and drowned out the celebration.

Another goal accomplished.

Rosewood defeated fourth-seeded East Columbus 55-49 and earned its second straight appearance in the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 1-A eastern regional. The Eagles (22-3) meet Gates County (26-1) today at Crown Arena in Fayetteville.

Tip-off is 7 p.m.

Admission is $9.

Reigning east champ Martin Riverside (21-5) squares off against Roxboro Community (28-3) in the other semifinal. The winners meet Saturday at 2 p.m.

"Fayetteville ... how cool is that?" Grantham said. "That's what they wanted to do from the beginning. We talked about it one time early in the year. We said we can't talk about last year because if you're still thinking about what you did yesterday, you're not accomplishing anything today.

"Now that we're here, we can talk about it."

The Eagles become the second Wayne County girls' team in the last five years to make consecutive trips to the regionals. Goldsboro reached the regional round in 2011 and 2012.

Eastern Wayne went in 2013.

Road weary and battling sickness, Rosewood persevered against a taller and physical East Columbus team on Tuesday. They didn't attack the Gators' zone well in the first half and entered halftime down by two points.

The Eagles switched to aggressive mode after intermission.

The backcourt work from Krystal Yelverton, Jala Holloman and Nekia Williams helped create more offensive opportunities. Lexi Mercer did her usual thing, but three players -- Callie Thornton, Hannah Daniels and Alyssa Garrison -- also produced in key moments.

The trio connected on "spot" shots off of inbounds plays or got high-percentage looks at the basket off of screens from their teammates. They also matched the Gators' physical play and hit the floor for every loose ball.

"J was awesome, Hannah was awesome and Alyssa didn't feel good (Monday) so I gave her a minute or two at a time (on the court) because her stomach had been bothering her," Grantham said. "She said she felt OK. Lexi does what she does. Krystal didn't have her usual explosive play tonight.

"We're at our best when we're in our halfcourt (offense) and driving in the lane. We attacked the elbow area in the second half."

Rosewood shot a playoff-high 52 percent from the floor.

Grantham stressed that once Carolina Conference play ended, he and his team began focusing on bigger dreams. They're just a few steps away from accomplishing those goals and pushing the program to new heights.

"We don't talk about the bigger dreams, but we know they are there," he said.