McGuinness girls defeat North Surry

By: DOUG MEAD | Special to the Journal
Published: February 08, 2012

KERNERSVILLE --

The year was 2010, and it was Senior Night at Bishop McGuinness High School.

The Villains lost that final home game of the season to North Surry.

Fast forward to Tuesday night. It was Senior Night at Bishop McGuinness. And again the opponent was North Surry.

History would not repeat itself.

Bishop McGuinness used its superior depth and accurate free-throw shooting to hand North Surry its first loss of the season, 45-36 in a Northwest 2-A/1-A Conference game.

"When these girls were sophomores, that loss on Senior Night hurt a lot," said coach Brian Robinson of McGuinness. "They didn't forget it because they wanted to win so badly for those seniors. They made a pact. And I know they wanted to win this one badly on Senior Night."

The Villains (20-3, 13-2) hit their first 15 free throws, a streak that ended when McKenzie Rochford missed both ends of a two-shot foul with 33 seconds remaining. McGuinness finished 17 of 20 from the free-throw line, and North Surry made six of eight.

All 11 of the Villains' fourth-quarter points came from the free-throw line.

"We have not been the best free-throw shooting team in the world this season," said Robinson, whose team has won six straight state championships. "We've been harping on the girls about it. We missed a bunch in December and January, but it's important to make 'em in February and March."

Sammi Goldsmith led McGuinness with 15 points. She made 10 of 11 from the free-throw line.

"In the beginning of January we lost of couple of games that we could have won because of our foul shooting," she said. "We all started working on our foul shots more in practice and even outside of practice."

With the score tied at 34, the McGuinness defense forced North Surry (22-1, 14-1) into a series of turnovers and bad shots. The Greyhounds made one field goal in the final 5:30.

North Surry dominated much of the first half, jumping out to leads of 16-8 and 20-12. Suddenly the Villains took over. Cameron Nieters scored on a layup, Goldsmith hit a 3-pointer and was fouled on another 3-point attempt. She made all three free throws to tie the score at 20.

Robinson said he thought the Villains' superior depth was the key to the victory.

"We thought if we could run them the first couple of quarters and get to their legs early, maybe their shots would come up short in the third and fourth quarters," he said. "It was a calculated risk because they are excellent shooters. But fortunately their shots did come up short in the fourth quarter and we were getting the rebounds, which we weren't doing in the first and second quarters. And it paid off in our favor."

Goldsmith agreed.

"We definitely knew we had to go out and play our game and keep running them," she said. "They only had one or two subs that would come in. We have four or five girls that we rotate in. It's definitely to our benefit to have a deeper bench than they do."

Coach Shane Slate of North Surry pointed to some lapses by the Greyhounds after they had taken leads early.

"We were up 16-8 and had a chance in the second quarter to push it up to where we could have had at least a 12-point lead," Slate said. "We ended up with three turnovers and what I would call three questionable shots in our next eight possessions. Next thing you know they hit a couple of big threes, and we're down one at the half. And we had a hard time getting the momentum back."

Kristina Rumplasch led North Surry with 13 points.