High school girls basketball: Mustangs lost a ton, but Evans expects to compete
Published 1:32 am Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Lily Kluttz
By Mike London
Salisbury Post
GRANITE QUARRY — Brice Evans, a healthy, happy baby boy, arrived in late May, so East Rowan head girls basketball coach Bri Evans’ life has changed quite a bit this summer.
Brice Evans has roughly a 99 percent chance of being a super athlete 16 years from now, as mom was one of the best guards in Catawba College women’s basketball history, while dad Trey, was one of the best linebackers the Indians ever had.
Bri joked that Brice, who is 2 months old now, would be helping with her husband’s football camp this week. No scholarship offers for Brice have been reported for young Brice so far, but it’s probably just a matter of time.
As far as East’s girls basketball team, Evans has regained some of her quickness after childbirth, and she’ll be ready for her fifth season in November. While she has a new priority, basketball is still really important to her.
Evans and her husband worked with practically a brand new group 0f girls this summer, as most of the familiar names who made East such a solid and fun to watch team in 2024-25 will soon be college freshman. Rowan County Girls Basketball Player of the Year Mary Church will be playing for Meredith College. Rowan County Female Athlete of the Year Sadie Featherstone will be competing in track and field for NC State University. Isis Smith, Savannah Wise and Kady Collins will be making the short drive to help Pfeiffer University athletics, and the Mustangs subtracted several more basketball girls, including Kori Miller, a smart player who was usually a starter.
“I can’t be sad about those girls graduating,” Evans said. “That was a special group of girls and we’ll miss them, but one of the things you hope to do as a high school coach is to help kids get to the next level, and five members of last year’s basketball team are getting a chance to play a sport in college. They won’t all be college basketball players, but high school basketball helped them get to where they are now.”
Lily Kluttz will be the biggest name returning for the Mustangs. The rising senior point guard will have to do a lot for the Mustangs next season. She’ll be the leader.
Kluttz isn’t tall, but she’s an athlete. As East’s shortstop, she was the Rowan County Player of the Year for softball.
“Lily is really into softball, but she doubled up and was there for us this summer in basketball, as well as playing Legion softball,” Evans said. “We had regular workouts every week in June and we went over to North Meck’s tournament and played against some good teams — South Iredell (coached by Evans’ sister), Community School of Davidson, South Meck and North Meck.”
Besides Kluttz, East has returning players who got some experience last season such as Izzy Stepp, who was always one of the first Mustangs off the bench. Ava Alderman and KP Pfister also played some, but Evans isn’t expecting any of last year’s reserves to suddenly blossom into Mary Church.
Evans is pleased with her group of newcomers to varsity ball, and that’s good news. They’ll have to help right away.
“We’ll depend on a lot of new faces, but I think we’re in better shape than we were four years ago when I was in my first year as head coach,” Evans said. “We’ve got our program in place. We’ve got a foundation now, so we’ve just got to fit the new pieces together. We lost a deep senior class, so it’s going to be a totally new dynamic for us in some ways, but we’re still going to work hard every day. We’re still going to compete every game.”