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Davidson-Randolph Christmas Classic

SWR girls Caressa King v Tville in tourney Dec2022

Davidson-Randolph Christmas Classic recap: Cougars surprise Randleman girls for tourney title

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Caressa King, the eventual tournament Most Valuable Player from Southwestern Randolph, goes up for a shot against Thomasville in the Davidson-Randolph Christmas Classic at Providence Grove. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)

 

CLIMAX – Southwestern Randolph’s three-game sweep of girls’ basketball games in the Davidson-Randolph Christmas Classic was far from ordinary.

The Cougars knocked off previously undefeated Randleman 48-47 in Thursday night’s championship game.

Caressa King scored 19 points on the way to being named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

Randleman (12-1) lost a regular-season game for the first time since the abbreviated season in the 2020-21 school year. It was also the Tigers’ first loss to a Randolph County team since that season.

Southwestern Randolph avenged a 55-41 home loss from Dec. 16 in the Piedmont Athletic Conference. The teams are slated to meet again Jan. 27 at Randleman.

Maddie Strider and Jordin George were all-tournament picks for the Cougars (10-3).

Southwestern Randolph defeated Thomasville 66-9 in the first round. Next, the Cougars topped South Davidson 52-41 in the semifinals, when Maddie Small had 14 points and George posted 11 points.

Gracyn Hall of Randleman also made the all-tournament team.

Randleman received a first-round bye and then defeated North Davidson 56-49 in the semifinals with Elizabeth York scoring 16 points and Hall adding 15.

Asheboro’s girls went 1-2 with losses to West Davidson (by 51-48) and Providence Grove (66-46) sandwiched around a rout of Thomasville (by 56-5). Providence Grove lost to North Davidson by 59-49 before a bye and then the Asheboro game.

** At Ledford, host Ledford won the title by defeating Davie County 46-37 in the final.

Kennedy Jackson of Trinity was picked for the all-tournament team.

Lexington defeated Trinity 60-54 in the third-place game. Trinity began the tournament with a 43-31 victory against West Davidson as Autumn Gentry had 18 points. Then the Bulldogs lost 69-31 to Davie County.

Wheatmore won its last two games for fifth place after an opening 50-39 loss to Davie County. The Warriors stopped West Davidson 56-41 with Rian Perry registering 21 points and blasted East Davidson 54-31 with Bri Hill providing 16 points.

Uwharrie Charter Academy managed seventh place by decking West Davidson 57-35 behind Chloe Painter’s 15 points. Earlier, the Eagles lost to Lexington by 58-28 and to East Davison by 49-45 despite Ashara Spuill’s 21 points.

Boys’ basketball

At Climax, Thomasville won the tournament’s Providence Grove site championship by defeating Asheboro 72-56 in the final behind the play of tournament MVP Bryce McCoy.

It was Thomasville’s second victory against the Blue Comets in a 10-night span.

Jerquarius Stanback of Asheboro and James Ellis of Providence Grove were all-tournament selections.

Asheboro had a first-round bye and then defeated Providence Grove 80-62 behind 19 points from Stanback and 16 points apiece from Tanner Marsh and Camden Walker.

Providence Grove opened with a 55-43 victory against North Davidson as Ellis poured in 19 points. Ellis had 13 points in the Asheboro game. The Patriots recovered to capture third place with a 79-54 whipping of South Davidson.

Randleman fell 55-50 to South Davidson in its tournament opener and then knocked off Southwestern Randolph 58-52 in the consolation round. Greg Price had 19 points as Randleman won the fifth-place game by 62-49 against North Davidson.

Southwestern Randolph began with a 58-38 loss to Thomasville. The Cougars played just twice because of the seven-team bracket.

** At Ledford, Davie County defeated Ledford 50-46 in the title game.

Dominic Payne and Dylan Hodges of third-place Trinity were all-tournament choices.

Hodges had 20 points when Trinity won its first tournament game with a 75-37 whipping of West Davidson. The Bulldogs fell 64-38 to Davie County despite Hodges’ 19 points.

Trinity finished the tournament by handling Uwharrie Charter Academy 74-28 with Dominic Payne pumping in 31 points and Hodges notching 14 points.

UCA won 69-67 in the first round against Lexington, with Ashton Troutman pouring in 34 points. Troutman had 27 points in a 55-49 semifinal loss to Ledford.

Wheatmore lost 69-48 to Davie County and then defeated West Davidson 50-48 as Tristan Hammonds hit a winning 3-point shot. In the fifth-place game, the Warriors suffered a 60-57 defeat to Lexington despite Riley Strickland’s 22 points.

Asheboro H Butler v UCA hoops Dec2022

Fields set for big high school holiday basketball tournaments

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Asheboro’s Hakemme Butler goes up for a shot as Uwharrie Charter Academy’s Ethan Kinney, left, and Walker Wilkins look on. Both teams are in this week’s Davidson-Randolph Christmas Classic, though at different sites. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)

CLIMAX – The Davidson-Randolph Christmas Classic is set for another go-around using two sites, but the field isn’t quite as big as last year.

This week’s girls’ and boys’ basketball tournaments will have one slight difference in terms of number of teams.

Providence Grove and Ledford are the sites. But the Providence Grove site has only seven girls’ and seven boys’ entrants, so that means fewer games there.

“It threw a wrinkle into it,” said Calvin Brown, outgoing athletics director at Providence Grove.

Games will be held Tuesday through Thursday.

There will be six games per day at Providence Grove and eight games per day at Ledford.

At Providence Grove, the girls’ pairings are Asheboro-South Davidson, Southwestern Randolph-Thomasville and North Davidson-Providence Grove with Randleman receiving a bye.

It’s the same matchups for the boys except Randleman will take on South Davidson, with Asheboro receiving the bye.

At Ledford, the pairings are: Wheatmore-Davie County, Trinity-West Davidson, Uwharrie Charter Academy-Lexington and East Davidson-Ledford.

Brown, who’ll officially begin duties as Asheboro’s football coach next month, said some rather late withdrawals created the bracket oddity. Adjustments were made to even the field between the two sites as much as possible.

“It all worked out and we’re going to have a good tournament,” Brown said.

He also said by nixing morning games at the Providence Grove site that reduced the impact in terms of attendance because those are generally the least attended games.

Games begin each day at 12:30 p.m. at Providence Grove and at 9:30 a.m. at Ledford.

Eastern Randolph, Central Davidson, Jordan-Matthews and Oak Grove aren’t participating this year. Central Davidson’s boys’ team won the Providence Grove site last year and Oak Grove’s girls were titlists at Ledford.

UCA, Davie County and North Davidson are newcomers, while South Davidson, Southwestern Randolph and Thomasville have switch sites. Southwestern Randolph and Thomasville met on the opening day last year at Ledford.

Randleman’s girls were champions at Providence Grove. Thomasville’s boys won at the Ledford site last year.