East 1A finals: Riverside wins rematch against Rosewood

By Cam Ellis
Published in Sports on March 8, 2015 1:52 AM

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cellis@newsargus.com

FAYETTEVILLE -- Lexi Mercer stood underneath the basket, hands on her hips and wondered what had just happened.

After fouling out with 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Mercer and her teammates were left looking for answers. It was the final moment of frustration in a game packed full of them.

Riverside Martin, for the second straight year, defeated Rosewood in the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 1-A eastern regional championship game. This time, the second-seeded Knights won 67-47 on the Crown Arena court.

Mercer ended the game with 23 points, one assist, one blocked shot and three steals.

Riverside exploited its substantial height advantage inside, crashed the offensive boards, denied the Eagles' transition game and led 26-10 after the first quarter. The size disadvantage forced Mercer and point guard Krystal Yelverton play aggressive inside the paint, and each were saddled with three fouls after eight minutes of play.

Things didn't get much better from there.

The Eagles trailed by 20 points at halftime.

"We haven't had many games this season where we've come out and been down immediately," Mercer said. "It was kind of different for us. We didn't adjust to it well. The game just wasn't consistent for us."

Undersized throughout the year, Rosewood didn't play a good enough game to overcome the Knights' height.

"We weren't big enough to stop them," Rosewood head coach Rick Grantham said. "I thought we fouled too much. We talk about it all the time -- don't foul a shooter when she's shooting a layup."

Turnovers didn't help, either. Rosewood committed 24 miscues, many of which were sloppy passes in transition. Grantham's team finished with just seven assists.

"I've got a feeling that those turnovers were part of (the reason they lost)," Grantham said. "Evidently (the height issues) were worse than I thought, because I really felt pretty good about it when I was driving over here today."

Riverside used its three-headed scoring attack -- Takwana Bland (18 points), Kayla Jones (26) and Remi Simmions (16) -- to overwhelm the Eagles. They scored 27 points off of Rosewood's turnovers and owned a 46-18 advantage in the paint.

"Honestly, I can look at each and every one of them, and they expected to be there," Riverside head coach Kirby Maness said. "They expected to be in that situation and they expected to be in that place and they raised themselves to the occasion."

Rosewood, on the other hand, heads home as the regional runner-up for the second straight season. While Mercer will return for next season, the Eagles lose seniors Yelverton and Callie Thornton.

"I think we had a good season," Yelverton said. "I don't think we can walk around with our heads down because of this one loss."

With the disappointment still fresh, Grantham acknowledged that sometimes it's not always about wins and losses.

"You want to be positive with the kids," he said. "I love them all unconditionally. I don't care win or lose, it doesn't make a difference. No one had more fun than we did."