Staff report

Carson’s girls and North Rowan’s boys will play in the third round of the state playoffs on Saturday.

North Rowan is on the road at 5 p.m. at Winston-Salem Prep.

Carson plays at home against Enka at 6 p.m.

The situation is more complicated for the Salisbury girls. Salisbury still doesn’t know who it will play in the third round, as the Forest Hills-Ashe County second-round game has been postponed twice due to weather conditions in Ashe County. That game is now scheduled for Saturday. Salisbury, the top-seeded team in the 2A West bracket is now scheduled to host Ashe County or Forest Hills on Monday.

 

1A boys

(7) North Rowan (22-7) at (2) Winston-Salem Prep (19-8)

Winston-Salem Prep’s eight losses are misleading. Three were to Mount Tabor, the No. 1 seed in the 3A West bracket. Two were to out-of-state teams.

Two were to East Surry (one regular season, one in the Northwest Conference tournament).

In the second round of the playoffs, the Phoenix of Winston-Salem Prep beat East Surry, 71-49.

Winston-Salem Prep has a lot of size with 6-foot-7 Zaire Patterson and 6-6 Anthony Sellars. TJ Mills, a 6-2 guard, scored 23 on Thursday. Another standout is point guard Stephen Minor.

North Rowan didn’t look good at all in December, but has won seven in a row and 11 of its last 12, including hard-fought home playoff wins against North Stanly and North Stokes.

Young guard Quashawn Carpenter has two 20-point games in his last four outings. Denerio Robinson, a 6-5 senior, has averaged 19.7 points in his last three games. Brandon White, a 6-10 sophomore, has provided an almost automatic double-double.

North has played some memorable regional games against Winston-Salem Prep. Winston-Salem Prep stopped North Rowan 72-70 in two overtimes in 2013. In 2011, North Rowan beat the Phoenix 92-85 in two overtimes and went on to win the state championship.

 

(5) Enka (23-4) at (4) Carson (25-3)

Enka’s Jets, from Candler, deep in the mountains, lost twice in Freedom’s Christmas tournament, including a three-point loss to Freedom (27-0) that was pretty impressive.

Enka, conference champ in the Western Mountain Athletic Conference with a 15-1 record, split with second-place Asheville and was upset in the conference tournament by Erwin.

Carson, the North Piedmont Conference champ, split four games with West Rowan. The other loss was to 4A North Meck. Carson won a whale of a game against Asheville in the second round.

Enka will have a 140-mile trip, almost due east, to get to China Grove to play the Cougars.

The standout for Enka is Emily Carver, whose father, Brian, is the AD and head boys basketball coach at Enka.

Carver is a really talented wing player. She scored 35 points in Thursday’s 70-59 playoff win against Northern Guilford.

She scored 43 points in December when Enka beat Asheville. She’s a shooter and a driver. She was 20-for-26 on free throws on Thursday. A junior, she holds a number of D-I offers, including Appalachian State and UNC Asheville.

Hadleigh Dill scored 20 points for the Jets on Thursday. Mae Cordiale is the floor general.

Carson, which has won 10 in a row, survived 31 turnovers, 21 in the first half, to get past Thursday. Carson lost leading scorer Maci Cooper to an ankle injury in that struggle.

It’s been a committee all season for the Cougars, who don’t have any big scorers. At different times, Ellie Wilhelm, Colbie Perry, Carleigh Perry and Hannah Isley have led the way offensively. Lani Isley and Taylor Conrad do a lot of little things to help the Cougars win. Victoria Post was a factor in Thursday’s victory.