On Friday, it was close, but Weddington sidestepped Palisades for a 47-44 victory. Given Weddington's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 150th, while Palisades is ranked 329th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Natalie Poole was the offensive standout of the game as she scored 11 points along with six rebounds and three steals. Those six rebounds set a new season-high mark for her. Madison Motto was another key contributor, scoring ten points along with seven rebounds.
When it comes to explaining why Palisades lost, one person who can't be blamed is Tynilla Simpkins. Despite the final result, she scored 16 points along with nine rebounds and five assists. Simpkins scored a full 36.4% of Palisades' points, the fourth time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Kyra Morris, who scored eight points.
Weddington is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a nice bump to their 7-4 record this season. As for Palisades, they are on a four-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 4-7.
Weddington will have some time to savor their victory since their next game is a little ways off: they'll take on Kings Mountain at 6:30 p.m. on January 3rd. Kings Mountain is hoping to put an end to a four-game streak of away losses. Palisades and Broome will round out the year against one another at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday at. Hopefully Broome focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 25 on Wednesday.
