North Lenoir girls pound Panthers

Published in Sports on December 1, 2004 1:56 PM

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LAGRANGE -- For the first time in the 2004-05 season, the North Lenoir girls basketball team trailed in a game.

Alas, the deficit only lasted 15 seconds. After falling behind 2-1 to visiting East Duplin, the Hawks went on a 25-2 run to close the first quarter and finished with a 67-26 rout of the Panthers.

The Hawks girls were the only show in Wheat Swamp Tuesday night; the boys game against the Panthers was postponed to a date to be determined due to East Duplin's lack of players because of the 2A football playoffs.

North Lenoir (4-0) led 26-4 after the first quarter, 41-9 at halftime and 59-16 at the end of three quarters. The lead was as great as 47 points on three different occasions in the fourth quarter.

"We did a good job of running the floor," said North Lenoir coach Wayne Floyd. "We really caught fire tonight and everyone played well. It was a total team effort and everybody contributed."

Floyd called off the full-court pressure defense that his team employs midway through the second quarter because of the score disparity. Regardless, the Hawks, who are forcing more than 42 turnovers a game, still provoked 36 East Duplin miscues.

North Lenoir's Katie Maloney led all scorers with 15 points. Shannon Plymouth, who was coming off a 38-point night against Kinston on Friday, finished with 14, including 12 in the first quarter. She also added six assists.

But the advantage of having such a blowout victory for Floyd was that the veteran coach was able to utilize some of his talented bench. Sophomores Carla Miller (11 points, 13 rebounds) and Catelyn Howard (six points, four rebounds) each had career-highs in the game.

East Duplin (1-1) was led by Meredith Pierson and Diqueretta Woodard, who scored six points each.

The Hawks return to action Friday when they host Ayden-Grifton in Wheat Swamp.