North Surry's Morgan Midkiff, right, drives against Starmount's Jordan Raye Thursday.
The Greyhounds picked up 10 points from Courtney Campbell, 9 from Nicole Rumplasch, 8 from Emily Culler and Lindsey Payne and 7 from Morgan Midkiff to advance to the tournament finals against host Ashe County tonight.
While on his way back home following the game, Greyhound coach Shane Slate said a well-rounded attack is the way he prefers his team to perform.
“Balance is my favorite word on offense,” Slate said. “That’s what we need to do to be successful. Whether it’s in the halfcourt or in transition, we strive for finding our teammates because we have a lot of different folks that can do that for us.”
Despite Starmount’s 22-20 lead at the break, the Greyhounds managed a 4 to 5 point advantage through much of the first half.
North Surry turnovers in the second quarter and good play from the Ram’s star low post force Julianna Prim put Starmount on top.
Slate said his team did a much better job of limiting Prim in the second half by rotating the Greyhounds backside help on defense.
“She’s a tough matchup,” Slate said. “She’s as good a post player as we have seen in a while. It’s hard to duplicate her size and strength.”
Slate said sophomore Emily Culler also did an excellent job of covering Starmount’s Kelli Bonner, who averaged near 20 points per game in the regular season. Bonner managed just 6 points Thursday.
Morgan Midkiff added 6 assists for the Greyhounds, while Courtney Campbell just missed a double-double, picking up 9 rebounds to go along with her 10 points.
North will meet Ashe County tonight looking to avenge two close regular season losses to the Huskies.
The Greyhounds lost by a combined 13 points in the two defeats and Slate said coming out on top hinges on North’s ability to execute and play its game.
“There’s not many surprises at this point in the year,” Slate said. “We’ve got to be smart with the ball on offense and limit their good looks on defense. The first two games were decided by 8 and 5 points and we had leads in the second game at our place but just couldn’t quite get over the hump. Hopefully we will this time.”
North Surry 51,
Starmount 47
Starmount — 9 22 31 47
North — 12 20 33 51
Starmount — Baldwin 6, Bonner 6, Jordan Raye 12, Julianna Prim 21, Aplin 2
North Surry — Courtney Campbell 10, Hodges 9, Rumplasch 9, Payne 8, Culler 8, Midkiff 7
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