Mount Airy's Danielle Williams, left, looks for room against North Stokes Monday. Williams scored 12 second half points to lead the Bears to a 41-40 win.
It marked the fourth time the Granite Bears have beaten the Vikings over the season, which included another close 46-42 win Thursday in the first round of the Northwest 1A Conference tournament in Pilot Mountain.
North Stokes missed a half court heave at the buzzer after keeping themselves in the ball game late in the final period.
Mount Airy was down 11-3 at one point during the first quarter, and went without a field goal for nearly eight minutes of game time in the opening half.
But while the Bears started sluggish, they finished the half with a flurry to take a 20-19 lead into the locker room
North’s strongest player, Jodie Lemons, was held to just two first-half points after she picked up her second foul early in the first period.
But even with Lemons on the bench, North Stokes looked like a team on a mission.
Danielle Williams led the Bears second-half charge, which saw them lead by as much as six points with the ball in the fourth quarter.
Williams scored all of her team-high 12 points after the half, including two 3-pointers.
Mount Airy again shot well from the free throw line, as all-conference forward Taylor Hiatt scored all nine of her points on 9-of-10 shooting from the charity stripe, which included a 4-of-4 performance in the fourth quarter.
Even though he was relived at the win, Mount Airy coach Howard Mayo was less than thrilled with the way the game’s conclusion played out for his team.
“I thought at the end of the game we turned the ball over, we missed a free throw and we didn’t do what we had to do to secure the victory,” he said. “We gave North Stokes an opportunity to hang around and they hung around.”
Like any coach knows, Mayo said it’s always tough to defeat a team twice, much less four times in a season.
“You’re playing them four times in a month and they are a good basketball team,” Mayo said. “They’ve won 15 games and nine of their 11 losses come from teams with 18-19 wins. What does that tell you? It was just tough. The one thing I say is that we did find a way to survive and move on and that’s always important.”
Mount Airy will play the winner of Cherryville-Albemarle. A final was unavailable as of press time.
Mount Airy 41, North Stokes 40
NS — 11 8 9 12 — 40
MA — 3 17 12 9 — 41
Mount Airy —Danielle Williams 12, Case 9, T. Hiatt 9, Leonard 4, J. Hiatt 3, K.T. Jones 2, Webster 2
North Stokes — Jodie Lemons 13, Bullins 8, Warden 4, Hutchins 3, Mabe 3, Clary 5, Hopkins 2, Nickelston 2
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