The North Moore girls’ basketball team used a big second half to run away from East Montgomery 62-42 on the road Tuesday.

The Lady Mustangs overcame cold shooting in the first half — missing eight shots in a row — with strong defense. Despite its scoring troubles, North Moore only trailed by six at the half (24-18).

“We regrouped by telling our girls that we couldn’t play much worse and yet we were only down by six,” head coach Sammy McNeill said, adding that he told them if they continued to play well defensively, the offense would come around.

McNeill’s words were prophetic, as the girls put 44 points on the board in the second half.

Shakorya Brower led all scorers with 22 points. McNeill said Katelyn Sheffield did a “great job” running the offense and scoring, finishing with 10. Tashonna Farmer had 11, Jessie Sheffield had seven, Ashley Giles had six, Tyisha Horne had four and Holly Green had two.

“I would also like to mention how great a job our bench did when they were called upon,” McNeill said. “Outstanding win against a tough opponent, but now it’s time to prepare for Chatham Central, who has controlled this conference for the last few years. Very tough game at home Friday.”

The win improved the Lady Mustangs’ record to 2-1 (2-0 Yadkin Valley Conference). Tipoff for the Chatham Central game is scheduled for 6 p.m. in Robbins.

N.M. Boys Roll, Too

The North Moore boys’ basketball team cruised past East Montgomery to earn its first road win of the season Tuesday.

The Mustang defense shined in the YVC contest, forcing turnovers that led to easy baskets. North Moore outscored the Eagles 23-6 in the third quarter and 16-7 in the fourth on its way to a 61-32 win.

Xavier Scotton, Tyler Wallace and Corbin Brock each scored 12 points to lead the North Moore scoring. Freshman Tristan Matthews added 10. Sterling Barrett pulled down 12 rebounds.

The boys are now 3-1 overall (1-1 YVC). They will entertain Chatham Central tonight at 7:30 p.m.

U.P. Grapplers Dominate Jags

Union Pines overpowered Overhills 78-0 in its 3A Cape Fear Valley Conference dual opener Wednesday at Spring Lake. With the win the Vikes are now 4-0 in dual competition and have two tournament titles on the season.

The Vikings won 10 of their 14 matches against the Overhills Jaguars via pins while also picking up one forfeit, one technical fall, one major decision and one decision.

UP 78, OH 0

103: Darrell Utt, UP, pinned Curtis William 1:41; 112: Billy Hornbaker, UP, pinned Paul Perez, , 2:22; 119: Philip Mondi, UP, pinned Timothy Boatwright 0:45; 125: Brandon Berry, UP, pinned Shaquille Leach 1:59; 130: Taylor Walker, UP, pinned Kyle Kingswood 1:34; 135: Ryan Hull, UP, pinned Richard Kandarczyk 2:34; 140: Chris Rubinosky, UP, pinned Joshua Alston 0:56; 145: Danny Deardorff, UP, dec. AJ Kanabrocki 5-2; 152: Koven Hensley, UP, pinned AJ Kanabrocki 0:56; 160: Adrian Soto-Perez, UP, won by forfeit ; 171: Kelvin Morrison, UP, tech. fall David Matheney 0:00 22-7; 189: Jared Bartram, UP, major dec. Robert Jackson 15-4; 215: Josh Huskey, UP, pinned Jonah Fink 0:32; 285: Josh McGowan, UP, pinned Allen Brandon 4:54

O’Neal Boys, Girls Fall

Both the O’Neal boys and girls lost to Caldwell Academy in a pair of home games Tuesday.

Caldwell was on fire from beyond the arc in the first quarter of the boys’ game, hitting five threes to build a 21-2 lead. They hit two more in the second quarter to take a 30-8 lead into halftime. Caldwell big men Matthew Uchedike and Emeka Ikezu used their size and length to control the glass and limit O’Neal’s scoring opportunities inside.

The Falcons regrouped after the intermission, though, and outscored Caldwell 14-11 in the third quarter.

At one point, O’Neal got as close as 14 when Jacob Talbert and Charlie Johnson made consecutive buckets. But Caldwell responded with a 12-6 fourth quarter to keep the game out of reach.

Uchedike led Caldwell with 12 points while Ben Bell had 11. Talbert had 10 points for O’Neal while Johnson added seven.

O’Neal is now 3-4 on the year.

The Caldwell girls topped O’Neal 49-25 earlier in the evening.

Though the Lady Falcons were only down 10 at the half, Caldwell came out on a mission in the third quarter, going on an 18-3 scoring run.

Katie Robinson and Callie Carlson each scored 15 points for the Eagles, while Maria Adams had six, Suzanne Richard had four, Lexie Newsom had two and Addie Mancuso had one.

Maggie Jackson led O’Neal with seven points. Maura Thornton had five, Mary Dixon had four, Maeve Bartiss and Alessandra Tozzi had three, Madelyn Davis had two and Mary Winston Dozier had one.

The girls dropped to 1-6 on the year.

Both the boys’ and girls’ teams are back home tonight against Cary Christian.