Ashara Spruill | Uwharrie Charter Academy, girls’ basketball
Spruill had a couple of strong outings as the Eagles stayed in the mix to finish in the upper half of the Piedmont Athletic Conference.
She posted 19 points, on 8-for-10 shooting from the field, and eight rebounds in a 64-49 road loss to undefeated Randleman in the team’s first game of the week. That marked the third-closest game of the season in conference play for Randleman. UCA led 20-13 after the first quarter before the Tigers cranked out a 23-8 edge in the second quarter.
Then the junior tallied 26 points in a 53-45 victory against visiting Eastern Randolph. The Eagles wiped out a 27-24 halftime hole.
So it was big point production for Spruill, who’s the team leader in rebounds, assists and steals.
Those results pushed UCA’s record to 13-7 overall and 5-5 in the PAC going into the final week of the regular season.
TRINITY — Another local player has reached the 1,000-point milestone in girls’ basketball.
Trinity’s Autumn Gentry accomplished the career feat in a 47-40 victory against Providence Grove Patriots on Wednesday night.
The Bulldogs and Patriots played a close first half with the Bulldogs holding a two-point edge at the half. The Patriots battled back with a strong third quarter giving Providence Grove a four-point lead entering the fourth quarter.
Gentry, a junior, and her teammates dominated the fourth quarter, holding the Patriots to six points to punctuate Gentry’s milestone night.
Gracyn Hall of Randleman reached 1,000-point mark with a couple of strong games in late January.
Uwharrie Charter Academy’s Jair Ulloa works the arm bar against East Davidson’s Bryson Young in the 145-pound match in November. PJ WARD-BROWN/NORTH STATE JOURNAL
ASHEBORO —Randolph County will be represented in the Class 1-A dual team wrestling state championship meet as Uwharrie Charter Academy is the last remaining of the five county teams that qualified for the postseason.
UCA (35-0) will face Avery County for the state championship at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Fieldhouse on the Greensboro Coliseum grounds.
UCA defeated Pamlico County 45-40 in the regional semifinal before toppling host Rosewood 44-34 in the East Region final Wednesday.
Trinity came up short in the Class 2-A regional final in the West Region.
The Bulldogs, the No. 2 seed in the West Region, suffered a 33-31 road loss to top-seeded Bandys, which earned a trip to Greensboro to face another East Region No. 1 seed Bunn.
Trinity beat Newton-Conover 38-33 earlier Wednesday to advance to the nightcap against Bandys.
UCA and Trinity were both home teams for the first and second rounds Monday.
UCA notched victories against Neuse Charter and South Davidson, which reached the second round by topping Bradford Prep. For UCA, it was a forfeit against Neuse Charter, which chose not to compete, and then a 45-36 outcome against South Davidson.
Trinity advanced with victories against West Wilkes and Eden Morehead through the first two rounds.
Three other teams from Randolph County fell in the first round Monday.
In Class 3-A, Asheboro dropped a 34-31 matchup to West Rowan in the North Henderson gym.
Seven wrestlers for Asheboro won matches, with Xavier Santos (113), Yu Chen (138), Christian Diaz (152), Luke Lambeth (160), Logan Lambeth (182), Eduardo Soto-Canas (220) and Arhman Tyson (285) coming out on top.
The Blue Comets (25-5) had won the Mid-Piedmont Conference regular season, but they stalled right away in the postseason team competition.
In Class 2-A, Southwestern Randolph (14-11) tumbled by a 66-21 score against host Rutherford-Spindale Central.
In Class 1-A, Eastern Randolph (1-19) was drubbed 52-6 by host Pamlico County. The lone winner for the Wildcats was 126-pounder Adrian Lopez. Pamlico County then eliminated South Stanly.
It safe to say that it’s heating up in Piedmont Athletic Conference boys’ basketball.
Teams are chasing Providence Grove with a couple of weeks to play, but it’s clear the Patriots might not be in cruise control.
“We’re banged up,” Providence Grove coach Wes Luther said. “Who can survive the longest? Hopefully, we’re going to keep grinding it out.”
An example of the challenges that exist came with last week’s 55-52 escape at Southwestern Randolph.
The Cougars made it difficult for much of the night on the first-place Patriots, who cranked up their defense at opportune times.
“They turned up the pressure a little bit and really got after us on the perimeter,” Southwestern Randolph coach Matt Kiser said. “We allowed their pressure to bother us a little bit. Those were good adjustments that they made.”
With a cluster of teams in pursuit, the Patriots can’t afford to let their focus wander.
“I keep telling them don’t even think of one game at a time,” Luther said. “Just think of one quarter at a time.”
Southwestern Randolph could factor into how the pecking order unfolds near the top of the standings, particularly if the Cougars have pull off an upset or two down the stretch.
“Being right there at the end, that proves to our guys (that we can compete),” Kiser said. “I know it’s frustrating for them because we come out on the wrong end of so many of these games.”
Randleman’s Chenleigh Robinson lays the ball up during a game against host Eastern Randolph last week in Ramseur. PJ WARD-BROWN/NORTH STATE JOURNAL
Staying within range
Meanwhile, Trinity and Uwharrie Charter Academy staged a clash to see which team will be the top contender to first-place Providence Grove across the final two weeks of the regular season.
It took overtime for Trinity to pull out a 66-63 road victory against UCA.
“It’s huge,” Trinity coach Tim Kelly said of aiding the positioning in the standings for his team.
Trinity’s Dylan Hodges sent the game to overtime with a basket in the waning seconds of regulation. That capped a rally from a 10-point hole in the fourth quarter.
“Once it got down to five, it’s anybody’s game if you make good plays,” Kelly said. “We just hung together and started doing the things we’ve worked on in practice.”
Kelly said he liked how his team displayed a scrappy approach.
“We really hit the boards hard in overtime. We’re not really big,” he said. “We made some things happen.”
The Bulldogs finished with a 43-33 rebounding advantage.
Also by the end, Dominic Payne’s 27 points provided the biggest boost, while Trace Moffitt added 14 points and Aiden Blakely had 10 points.
“Dominic really stepped up and started competing,” Kelly said.
UCA’s balance scoring included 14 points apiece from Alijah Barker and Pierce Leonard, 13 points from Ashton Troutman and 12 points from Dawson Dunn.
The outcome avenged UCA’s 61-54 victory from December.
Note of the week
The undefeated Randleman girls scored the first 17 points in last week’s 63-19 victory at Eastern Randolph.
Trinity’s Casey Hohn, top, works against West Wilkes’ Holt Hanchey during the first round of the Class 2-A dual team state tournament Monday at Trinity.
Wrestling teams from Uwharrie Charter Academy in Class 1-A and Trinity in Class 2-A advanced through the first two rounds of the dual team state tournament.
UCA and Trinity were both home teams for the first and second rounds Monday.
These teams moved on to third- and potentially fourth-round meets Wednesday. The winning teams from that advance to the state finals. The goal is to make it to Saturday’s championship meets at the Fieldhouse at the Greensboro Coliseum complex.
UCA (33-0) notched victories against Neuse Charter and South Davidson, which reached the second round by topping Bradford Prep. For UCA, it was a forfeit against Neuse Charter, which chose not to compete, and then a 45-36 outcome against South Davidson.
UCA will compete Wednesday against Pamlico County at Rosewood in the third round. The winner stays for a fourth-round matchup against the winner of the Rosewood-Thomasville meet.
Trinity (21-1) had its way by stomping West Wilkes 50-18 and then turning away traditional state power Eden Morehead by 54-21.
Trinity next takes on Newton-Conover, while West Region top seed Bandys and West Lincoln collide in the other third-round meet at Bandys.
Three other teams from Randolph County fell in the first round Monday.
In Class 3-A, Asheboro dropped a 34-31 matchup to West Rowan in the North Henderson gym.
Seven wrestlers for Asheboro won matches, with Xavier Santos (113), Yu Chen (138), Christian Diaz (152), Luke Lambeth (160), Logan Lambeth (182), Eduardo Soto-Canas (220) and Arhman Tyson (285) coming out on top.
The Blue Comets (25-5) had won the Mid-Piedmont Conference regular season, but they stalled right away in the postseason team competition.
In Class 2-A, Southwestern Randolph (14-11) tumbled by a 66-21 score against host Rutherford-Spindale Central.
In Class 1-A, Eastern Randolph (1-19) was drubbed 52-6 by host Pamlico County. The lone winner for the Wildcats was 126-pounder Adrian Lopez. Pamlico County then eliminated South Stanly.
KERNERSVILLE – Two Asheboro swimmers notched individual championships in the Mid-Piedmont Conference championships last week at Kernersville Family YMCA.
Maci Columbia of Asheboro was the winner in two events on the girls’ side. She topped the field in the 200-yard freestyle and the 500 freestyle.
Columbia’s time in the 200 freestyle was 2 minutes, 9.73 seconds as she topped a field that began with 17 entrants.
She swam the 500 freestyle in a winning time of 5:41.23. There were 11 entrants in that even.
Also for Asheboro, Fiona Wolfe-Roberts was the winner in the 100 backstroke among 15 competitors. Wolfe-Roberts posted a time of 1:15.04.
North Davidson won the girls’ team title with 288 points ahead of runner-up Oak Grove with 254, while Ledford came in third with 215 points, followed by Asheboro at 195, Central Davidson at 86 and Montgomery Central with 81.
On the boys’ side, Oak Grove was the team champion with 347 points. North Davidson (265), Central Davidson (196), Ledford (188), Asheboro (77) and Montgomery Central (53) rounded out the scoring
Brooks racked up 25 points as the Wildcats ended a four-game losing streak with Friday’s 68-64 victory at Wheatmore.
Brooks, a junior who was coming off a strong football season, has boosted the Wildcats on the basketball court.
Eastern Randolph nearly ended its skid earlier last week, but it dropped a 50-46 overtime decision at home to Randleman.
Eastern Randolph began the season with five straight wins before some rough patches. The Wildcats entered this week with an 8-9 overall record and 2-6 mark in the Piedmont Athletic Conference.
ASHEBORO – The Uwharrie Charter Academy wrestling team produced another stellar regular season, but the Eagles will have to wait in their pursuit of a Class 1-A dual team state title.
Under coach Chris Waddell, UCA has run up a 31-0 record in duals. That includes a 6-0 mark in the Piedmont Athletic Conference.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association postponed the first and second rounds of the dual team tournament until Monday. That decision came after multiple weather-related postponements hit pockets of the state, so this will allow teams to complete more of their regular-season schedules and league tournament action this week.
Teams will be placed on the brackets Friday, pushing the first and second rounds to Monday. The third and fourth rounds will remain on the schedule for Feb. 2. Dual team state championships are set for Feb. 5 at the Fieldhouse at the Greensboro Coliseum complex.
This season’s UCA roster includes 2021 individual state place finishers Byan Lackey, Grayson Roberts and Doug Bowles.
UCA won the dual-team state title in 2019 and was the runner-up in 2020. The Eagles won the team championships in conjunction with the individual state tournaments in 2018 and 2019.
The 1,000-point milestone is in the works for a couple of area girls’ basketball players.
Gracyn Hall of Randleman reached that mark with a couple of strong games last week.
Autumn Gentry of Trinity entered this week within range of 1,000. The Bulldogs are slated for a game Friday at Uwharrie Charter Academy and a make-up game Saturday at Southwestern Randolph.
Hall and Gentry are juniors, so there could be plenty of time for their point totals to swell.
Hall racked up 21 points and 13 rebounds in last week’s 51-34 victory at Trinity.
The next night she eclipsed 1,000 career points with a 26-point, 14-rebound effort in a 64-54 victory against visiting Wheatmore.
That result pushed the Tigers’ record to 15-0. They moved to 7-0 in Piedmont Athletic Conference play, more than halfway through their 12-game league schedule.
Gentry had 15 points in the game against Randleman.
Trinity and Randleman are slated for a rematch Feb. 8 at Randleman.
Sorting out the boys
As the midway mark approached in the PAC, Providence Grove and Uwharrie Charter Academy have begun to separate themselves.
Providence Grove entered this week with a 6-1 mark in league play, with the lone blemish coming Thursday night in a 52-43 home loss to UCA.
That pushed the Eagles’ league record to 5-1.
In the Mid-Piedmont Conference, there haven’t been as many league games.
Asheboro and Ledford both got off to 2-0 starts in conference play. Central Davidson started this week at 2-2.
Asheboro will have almost two weeks in between games, so the Blue Comets should have some busy stretches the next couple of weeks.
Wheatley made five 3-point shots in two different games in a pair of victories for the Tigers last week. The senior averaged 20.5 points in those games.
In a 67-64 road victory against Trinity, he shot 7-for-10 from the field on the way to 20 points.
Two nights later at home, he racked up 21 points in a 57-53 victory against Wheatmore. He was 6-for-10 from the field in that game.
The outcomes brought an end to a four-game losing streak and improved Randleman’s record to 5-10. The Tigers won back-to-back games for the first time this season.
