PILOT MOUNTAIN — The East Surry Cardinals capped off a perfect regular season with a 72-41 win over rival Mount Airy on Friday.
The Lady Cards (12-0, 10-0) captured the Northwest 1A Conference Championship for the third-straight season by defeating Bishop McGuinness earlier in the week. Mount Airy could’ve contended for second place with a win and Bishop loss on Friday. Instead, the Bears fell to third place and the Villains took second with a win over Winston-Salem Prep.
Winning three consecutive conference championships has only happened one other time in East Surry school history. Under Hall of Fame coach Robert Smith, the Lady Cards won four-straight conference titles from 1998-2001.
This is also the first time a team in the NW1A Conference has won back-to-back-to-back conference championships. The conference became exclusive to 1A teams during the 2013-14 school year. Bishop McGuinness won the conference title in 2014, followed by Winston-Salem Prep in 2015 and 2016, Mount Airy in 2017 and 2018 and East in 2019, 2020 and now 2021.
Leading the Cardinals to victory was the team’s only senior, Dasia Lambert. Lambert led all scorers with 19 points.
Her most meaningful bucket was a 3-pointer that came with 2:37 left in the fourth quarter. Cardinal coach Caleb Gilley quickly called a timeout and the crowd erupted as it was announced that Lambert just scored her 1,000th-career point.
In addition to leading the team in points, Lambert also recorded a double-double with a team-high 14 rebounds. The point guard grabbed seven rebounds on both the offensive and defensive boards.
Lambert came close to a triple-double, and even flirted with a quadruple double, thanks to her seven assists, six steals and two blocks.
Having a guard that can grab rebounds fit perfectly into Gilley’s scheme of pushing the tempo at all times. East Surry’s goal was to get to the basket as much as possible. East’s size advantage also led to a number of second-chance opportunities off offensive rebounds.
The Lady Cards recorded 44 rebounds in the win, including 14 in the first quarter alone.
Mount Airy (6-7, 6-4) used its speed and sharp-shooting ability to go up before East could establish an offense. Addie Phipps nailed a triple just eight seconds into the game, and added another two minutes later. Teammate Morgan Mayfield hit her only 3-pointer of the night next to give Mount Airy a 9-8 lead at the first mask break.
The scales tipped in East Surry’s favor after the break. The Cards went on a 9-0 run to take the lead that would survive the rest of the game. Bella Hutchens and Cadence Lawson pounded the ball inside, and Rosie Craven added a 3-pointer.
But Mount Airy wasn’t out of the game just yet. Grey Moore hit a three to end the quarter only down five. Then, the Bears held East to just six points in the first five minutes of the second quarter. The problem was that Mount Airy only managed two points in that same span.
East Surry continued to attack the basket and went ahead 31-18 by halftime.
The Granite Bears knocked down shots in the third quarter and made it a ball game again. Moore hit two triples, and Tessa Stovall and Phipps combined for eight in the quarter.
The lead was cut to 39-32 when East Surry went into another gear. Lambert assisted a Brooke Gammons 3-pointer near the 3:00 minute mark. Lambert scored again off an offensive rebound at 2:16, and then again in transition not long after.
On the next Bears possession, Lambert stole the ball and assisted another Gammons 3-pointer. Finally, Lambert got another steal and found Kylie Bruner in the post with 1:17 on the clock.
In just 1:43 of game time, with no fouls or timeouts, East Surry went on a 12-0 run to go up 51-32.
The fourth quarter started off like it would be another shootout. The teams went shot-for-shot the first two minutes, but East still led by nearly 20.
Phipps hit a 3-pointer with 5:34 left to play to make the score 59-41. East Surry ended the game on a 13-0 run to win by 31 points.
The N.C. High School Athletic Association originally planned to release brackets for the state tournament on Saturday, but moved the date back to Sunday to allow teams more time to make games up.
East Surry is the only team in the conference with an automatic bid. There are only two wild card bids in each region, but the Bears may have a chance to get in if Bishop McGuinness is placed in the East Region again.
Until then, it’s all speculation.
Playoffs begin Tuesday, Feb. 23.
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EAST SURRY – 17, 14, 20, 21 – 72
MOUNT AIRY – 12, 6, 14, 9 – 41
ESHS scoring: Dasia Lambert 19, Cadence Lawson 17, Bella Hutchens 10, Rosie Craven 9, Brooke Gammons 8, Kylie Bruner 5, Kate Parks 4
MAHS scoring: Tessa Stovall 13, Addie Phipps 13, Grey Moore 9, Morgan Mayfield 5, Kylie Hollingsworth 1
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com