Rosewood girls stay unbeaten in Carolina 1A play

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on January 20, 2016 1:48 PM

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A mere 12 miles separate rivals Rosewood and Princeton.

The distance between the two varsity girls' programs is much greater.

Led by Elon University signee Lexi Mercer, the Eagles used a balanced opportunistic attack to defeat the Bulldogs, 71-35. Rosewood (12-3 overall, 7-0 CC) picked up its fifth consecutive win despite the absence of two key players with injuries.

"We played pretty well," Grantham offered, "and didn't have any reaching, silly fouls. For us, that's good. We've been guilty of that."

Princeton (5-10, 1-6) had difficulty maintaining its poise against a variety of Rosewood pressure packages, and was held without a basket until a Chelsea Hawley layup at the 4:12 mark of the first quarter.

By that point, Mercer and Co. had made the affair academic. The two-time Associated Press All-State selection played at a deliberate pace and ultimately registered 17 points, seven rebounds and eight assists.

She was not alone, however.

Sophomore guard Jala Holloman led all scorers with 18 points, and spearheaded a fluid defensive effort that registered a total of 16 steals. In all, nine different players scored for the Eagles.

Princeton was led by the three-point shooting of Maddie Adkins and Jordan Benson, who accounted for nearly 70 percent of the Bulldogs' success from beyond the arc. The guard tandem scored six points apiece.

Regarding the injury bug, Grantham noted the absence of Macy Tyndall, who remains in concussion protocol, as well as Payton Lane, who had emergency appendectomy surgery Saturday morning. Each player is expected to return within the next few weeks.

"Lexi leads, and the rest of us try to help her out all we can," Grantham said of his star, "That's the culture she's built for us... and everybody buys in."

And that notion was quite clear against the Bulldogs.