= Page 2B
Herald/Times
Poor free throw shooting beats
Lady Mounties in tourney opener
Kings Mountain High's girls basketball team
probably would rather not play on North
Gaston's court again anytime soon.
For the second straight game, the Lady
Mountaineers dropped a decision on the
Wildcats’ floor because they were stone cold from
the foul line.
In Friday's final regular season game, the
Mountaineers hit only 13 of 33 foul shots in a 39-
36 loss to the Lady Wildcats.
In the first round of the Southwestern 3A
Conference Tournament Tuesday night, the
Mountaineers hit only 21 of 41 shots from the foul
line in an upset loss to South Point, 56-53.
Still, Kevin Moss's ladies will compete in the
state 3A tournament next week, providing a team
that finished lower than third place during the
regular season doesn’t win the SWC tournament.
Despite their poor shooting, the KM ladies
were in the game with South Point until the very
end. South Point's spectacular sophomore,
Whitney Robinson, who is already closing in on
1,000 points in just two years of varsity play,
scored a field goal and two free throws in the fi-
nal seconds to give the Raiders the victory.
Robinson finished with a game-high 24 points.
Anna Ramey scored 19 and Jeana Thomas 13 for
Kings Mountain.
Kings Mountain held the lead at the end of
each of the first three quarters, but because of
their free throw shooting performance couldn’t
break the game open. KM led 21-13 after one
quarter and 28-23 at the half. The Mountaineers
had a good opportunity to blow th game open in
the third period when they went to the foul line
15 times, but they hit only five of those shots and
South Point cut the margin to 44-43 going into the
fourth quarter.
South Point took the lead 46-45 two minutes in-
to the final quarter but Kings Mountain battled
back to take the lead on two occasions. Kings
Mountain's final lead of 53-52 disappeared when
Robinson took an inbounds passed and drove the
length of the court for the winning basket.
The SWC tournament continues Thursday and
Friday at R-S Central High School. State
Tournament action gets under way Monday. If
~ the KM girls hold their #3 seed, they will host the
#4 team from the Tri-County Conference.
KM (53) - Ramey 19, Thomas 13, Gill 9, Leigh 4, C.
Cole 3, Elliott 3, Bennett 2.
SP (53) - Robinson 24, Van Pelt 6, Sadler 6, Bacon 5
Armstrong 4, Fotinos 3, Knight 2.
Evans bowls 443 in duckpins
Thursday’s Heroes extended
their mixed duckpin bowling
league lead to 12 games
Thursday night at Dilling
Heating, but the biggest hero on
the lanes was Greg Evans of
Deuces Wild.
Despite his team’s 6-2 loss to
“the YMCA with a perfect 12:0 record. "Front row, left to right,
Chelsea Champion, Kristen Tate, Meagan Reynolds, Christine
Reid. Back row, Coach Joey Barrett, Amber Goforth, Haley
Barrett, Patience Smith, Deanna Humphries, Brooke Hayes
and Coach Lynn Hayes.
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oe Cleveland Times
the Heroes, Evans bowled a 158
line and 443 set. His effort, 325.
though, was not enough to off-
set the balanced scoring of the
Heroes who had three bowlers
over the 300-set mark. Allen
Myers led with a 132-371, Ed
Philbeck had a 135-348, and
NEWSPAPERS, INC.
Mark Abernathy added a 123-
The Heroes now have a 32-8
record, compared to 20-20
marks by the Deuces Wild and
Barrett's Bombers, the latter an
8-0 winner over Zeke’s Zingers
(8-32).
Tommy Barrett led a balanced
attack for the Bombers with a
123 line and 351 set. Robert
Titus had a 116-323, and Colleen
Philbeck 122-316. Bonnie
Warren had a 117-309 and Zeke
Rybczyk a 112-309 for the
Zingers.
In Tuesday Night League ac-
tion, the Duck Heads (28-20)
moved into a tie for first with
an 8-0 sweep of the Old Timers
(24-24). Previous leader Ducks
Unlimited (28-20) split with
Tyrene’s Ducks (16-32) 4-4.
Mark Midgette led the way
for the Duck Heads with a 156
line and 392 set. Zeke Rybczyk
added a 150-354. Chris
Hullender had a 128-324 and
ohn Pilling a 117-310 for fhe
Robbie Hullonder’ s 142 lif
and 354 set led Ducks
Unlimited. Mike Murphy
added a 108-308.
Avg. temp. 50.9
Feb. 9-15
Total precip. 1.94
Max. 1 day .82 (13th)
Year to date 7.03
Min. temp. 34 (12th)
Max. temp. 73 (11th)
GARY STEWART / THE HERALD
Tyler McDaniel (top) won for Kings Mountain’s Mountaineers in Thursday’s Dual Team
Sectional Tournament match with Central Cabarrus at the KMHS gym. The Mountaineers lost
35-33, but enter individual Western 3A Regional competition Friday at Enka High School.
Mounties lose in dual Sectional,
compete in 3A Regional this week
Kings Mountain High's
wrestlersibowed out of the dual
state tournament Thursday
night at home with a 35-33 loss
to Central Cabarrus, but the
Mountaineers will get another
shot at individual state crowns
this-weekend when they travel
to Enka High School for the
Western 3A Regional
Tournament.
Central Cabarrus won the fi-
nal two matches of the night to
defeat the Mountaineers in the
first round of the Sectional
Tournament Thursday.
Waynesville Tuscola then de-
feated Central Cabarrus 35-33
for the Western title, but lost on
Saturday night to Fuquay-
Varina in the State
Championship match.
Kings Mountain, which won
the Southwestern 3A
Conference and District titles,
got victories by Cedric Hunter,
Michael Bell, Matt ie
Tyler McDaniel, Adonis _
- Matthews and Anthiony! |
Hillmat. Mort
Several Kings Mountain
wrestlers will take enviable
records to the Western
Kings Mountain Weather Report
(Compiled by Kenneth Kitzmiller)
Year Ago
25"
r= +.25/(9th)
SABE vl
© 20 (13th)
74 (11th)
51.3
Regionals Friday and Saturday.
Matt Ash is 30-1, Anthony
Hillman 27-1, Shane Short 29-4,
Michael Bell 30-5, and Matt
Bridges 27-7. As a team, Kings
Mountain finished second to
Tuscola in last year’s Regional.
“The top four finishers in each
weight division will advance to
the State Finals next weekend at
Independence Arena in
Charlotte.
Pats beat Lincolnton
to break losing streak
Kings Mountain Middle
School's Patriots snapped a
three-game losing streak
Thursday with a 41-40 victory
over Lincolnton.
The Patriots led after three
periods but Lincolnton rallied
with 11 points in the fourth
quarter to get back into the
~ game. Russ Putnam's 3-pointer
put the Patriots on top for good.
Derek Smith led the KM scor-
ing with 12 points and Orlando
Curry and MClamue added
eighteach..
The Patribts lost thir provid
ous thieesgames, 36240 ¥6 Burns,
51-31 to Shelby, and 68-63 to
Crest.
Kings Mountain fell behind
eafly against Burns but battled
back to tie the game after three
quarters. Burris led the KM
scoring with 10 points and
“Banks added 8.
Shelby grabbed an early lead
and never let up to defeat the
Patriots last Monday.
Williamson led the KM scoring
with 12 points and Smith added
10.
Kings Mountain and Crest
swapped the lead several times
Wednesday at Crest, and went
into overtime. Key free throw
shooting'downi the stretch made
the difference for the Dragons.
Smith led the KM scoring
with 25 points and Putnam
added 13.
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KMHS
Mountaineers with 12 points,
including six in the fourth peri-
od. Shonda Cole scored 11.
Kings Mountain dressed out
only seven players, and fin-
ished the game with five after
Danielle Gill was injured and
Ashley Leigh fouled out.
The Mountaineers scored on-
ly three points in the first quar-
ter, got back into the game after
three periods and then finished
with only eight points in the
fourth quarter
“I didn’t think things could
get any worse than they were at
Forestview when we scored on-
ly six points in the fourth quar-
ter,” said Coach Sipe. “But we
scored only three points in the
first quarter and that got us in a
hole right off the bat.”
North Gaston led 15-3 after
the first period, 26-20 at half-
time and 45-37 going into the
fourth quarter.
“We had a pretty good third
quarter and were down only
eight going into the fourth
quarter,” Sipe said, “but put on-
ly eight points on the board.
“This game was for fourth = -
place, and shooting only 25 per-
cent sort of sealed our fate,” he
added. “North Gaston played a
2-3 zone throughout the game.
They wanted to make us beat
them and keep us out of the
lane, and they were successful
in doing that.”
Kings Mountain's girls were
scheduled to open tournament
* play Tuesday night against
South Point at North Gaston.
The boys were scheduled to
face North Gaston again on
Wednesday night at East
Rutherford:
The semi-finals and finals of
the tournament will be held
Thursday and Friday at R-S
Central. State playoff action be-
gins next week.
If Kings Mountain's girls
qualify for the state tourna-
ment, they will host the #4 team
from the Tri-County Conference
next Monday.
emer GIRLS GAME
KM (36) - Ramey 12, Gill 7, C.
Cole 6, S. Cole 11.
NG (39) - Bloom 5, Boggs 16,
Cloninger 3, Esiet 4, Millsaps
7, Norwood 4.
BOYS GAME
* KM’ (45) - Bess 3, Henderson 9,
» Williamson 3, Odoms 2, McClain 3,
Cureton 4, Byers 4, Houze 4, Young
7, Goode 6.
NG (68) - Wilkinson 23, Howell
2, Toney 4, Grier 8, Houser 9, Beard
7, McClain 6, Hall 5, Ashley 4.
JV
From 1B
_of the JV program in his first
“season as coach.
“The girls really phyed
hard,” he said. “To finish sec-
‘ond in the conference really
showed a lot. They improved
from the first game until the last
game. They're going to do a lot
for the girls program here.
“The varsity girls program
won a berth to the state play-
offs, so it’s really going to be
good for our program.
“This being my first year as
coach, we got off to a slow « ~*
But as we came along I rea"
grew close to the girls. We EE
ly became like family and they
played like a family. I think we
learned a lot. I know I learned a
lot.
“Being a prior athlete at
' KMHS (Littlejohn was quarter-
back of the 1994 football team),
I found out it’s a whole lot dif-
ferent when you're on the
coaching side.”
Five of Littlejohn’s players -
Tisha Bell, Sylvia Elliott,
“Sherrica Cole, Crystal Miller
and Stephanie Moore - will
move up to the varsity for the
'. SWC and state tournaments.
Other members of the team
were Latoya McClain, Sonya
Jackson, Lequita Curry and
Elena Thompson.
Miller led the team in scoring
with an average of 20 points per
game. Elliott was the top re-
bounder with nine per game,
and Bell was led in assists with
six per game.
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