Bandys girls rally in final quarter to beat N-C

From the opening tip Thursday night, Bandys High girls' head coach Beth Queen called on her team to attack.

With the Trojans staring at a possible early league setback, they finally heard their coach’s call.

Madi Story scored 15 points, Jesse Story added 11 and Bandys erased a one-point deficit to Newton-Conover through three quarters by using a surge to start the final quarter and pull away from the Red Devils 56-48 at Bandys.

The contest was hardly an offensive highlight reel for either squad. The Trojans hit 21 of 56 shots (37.5 percent) and finished with 21 turnovers.

As sketchy as the Bandys offense was, Newton-Conover’s sputtered even more, hitting 17 of 47 floor attempts (36.2 percent) and ending with 22 giveaways.

The gritty victory, though, kept the Trojans unblemished in the early season (8-0 overall and 2-0 in the Catawba Valley AThletic 2A).

“I’ll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day,” said Queen. “I’m just very pleased the girls stepped up when they needed to.

“I feel that the strength of our team is our intelligence, but for the first three quarters we didn’t look like the team I know. Luckily they started to execute when they needed to in the fourth.”

The largest lead by either team through three quarters was a Bandys 35-28 advantage after a Madi Story jumper with three minutes, 31 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

But a Red Devils full-court pressure defense that gave the Trojans fits all night forced turnovers on three of Bandys’ final five possessions and keyed a 10-2 run to end the quarter with Newton-Conover (5-2, 1-1) up 38-37.

The Trojans finally solved the riddle over the final eight minutes, giving the ball away just four times and using a 14-3 run to start the quarter to turn their slim deficit into a 51-41 lead after Jesse Story's two free throws.

"We typically handle pressure well, but tonight we played tentative and didn’t attack like we normally attack," Queen said. "Luckily we finally got aggressive and were able to get some points at the other end.”

Also key to Bandys’ late-game spurt was a defensive effort that put the clamps on the Red Devils’ top scorer.

Shynese Whitener had 15 points through three quarters but went scoreless in the fourth. Newton-Conover opened the quarter 1-of-7 from the floor before scoring its final three baskets in the last 32 seconds.

“(The Trojans) did a good job of keeping on (Whitener), and it seemed they always had two people around her (in the fourth quarter),” said Red Devils head coach Ike Williams. “Unfortunately nobody stepped up and knocked down some shots.

“We just came out (in the final period) not in the moment and turned the ball over a few times. We got a little rattled and never settled down after that.”

Kadesha Gibbs scored 11 points and Taylor Petty added 10 for Newton-Conover.

 NEWTON-CONOVER 51, BANDYS 38

A prolonged dry spell that saw the Trojans go scoreless for nearly 11 minutes enabled the Red Devils to wipe out a 16-6 deficit at the end of the first quarter and pull away in the second half.

Bandys, which lost its 35th straight game,  failed to score  in the second quarter, as Newton-Conover (5-2, 2-0) outscored the Trojans 15-0 in the quarter to lead 21-16 at hafltime.

Jonah Griffith’s free throw with 5:19 left in the third quarter ended Bandys’ drought, but the Red Devils were ahead 31-26 after three quarters.

Kevin Holloway and  Joshuwell McCombs scored nine points each to lead Newton-Conover, while Hayden Deal and Kyle Tiffany scored 10 points apiece to pace Bandys (0-8, 0-2).