From staff reports

DENTON — It was 12-all after five minutes on Friday night, Peyton Davis and Tanner DeLattre were making amazing shots, and South Davidson boys basketball fans were starting to believe in miracles.

But then the Salisbury Hornets scored 11 straight points to close the first quarter.

And then Salisbury scored the first 16 of the second quarter for a 27-0 run.

It was all over but the shouting at that point, and the Hornets went on the drub the Wildcats 98-28 in a one-sided matchup of the Central Carolina Conference’s best and worst teams.

Salisbury got a shot of energy late in the first quarter because it was able to bring starter-quality guys off the bench — Dashawn Brown and Braylon Taylor. South Davidson was starting to get tired and the Hornets were tired of messing around. By halftime, the Hornets were ahead of the Wildcats (3-17, 0-9) by 40.

Salisbury (18-3, 9-0) has won 11 in a row. Thomasville hung in there for a while in the second meeting, but none of the 11 were all that close, all decided by 28 0r more points. The winning streak includes the Christmas tournament championship game against Central Davidson (a 20-1 3A) as well as Rowan showdowns with West and North.

Juke Harris had sort of a quiet 42 on Friday. That sounds comical, because 42-point games are scarcer than trustworthy politicians, but there weren’t a lot of plays that will be on his highlight tape for the season. It was mostly routine layups with a few dunks mixed in. He made 19 2s, one 3 and one technical free throw. There was one lob dunk. When he got his hands on the ball in the paint there wasn’t a lot that South Davidson could do except pray that he’d miss, and he doesn’t miss many point-blank shots.

While Harris wasn’t having a memorable night from long range, his teammates were pretty warm, Mike Geter (13 points) and Hank Webb (11) shot the ball really well. Salisbury made 10 3-pointers.

Salisbury          23    35     23     17    — 98

S. Davidson      12     6      5      5      — 28

SALISBURY —    Harris 42, Geter 13, Webb 11, Dalton 9, Taylor 7, Walker 7, Davis 4, Epps 3, D. Brown 2.

S. DAVIDSON — DeLattre 12, Davis 8, Flannery 3, Cook 2, Hines 2.

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SPENCER — North Rowan’s boys basketball team finished fiercely and beat East Davidson 81-54 for a Central Carolina Conference win on Friday.

The win was the 267th as a Rowan County head boys basketball coach for Jason Causby. He moved past Sam Gealy for third place all-time behind Mike Gurley and Bob Hundley.

It was a strange game. The Cavaliers jumped all over the Golden Eagles early and led 28-7 after a quarter.

North lost momentum for a while after that. East Davidson got back to 41-29 at halftime and trailed by only 53-50 after controlling the third quarter.

North (9-9, 5-3) got refocused  at that point and crushed the visitors 28-4 in the fourth quarter to pull away.

George Maxwell scored 18 to lead the Cavaliers, He scored eight in the first quarter.

Dyzarious Carpenter scored 17, including seven in the fourth quarter.

Amir Alexander (13) and Jayden Polk (12) also scored in double figures.

Tegin Hedrick scored 16 and Lucas Johnson added 15 for the Golden Eagles (12-8, 2-5).

East Davidson     7    22   21    4    — 54

North Rowan      28   13   12    28   – 81

ED — Hedrick 16, L. Johnson 15, Newton 10, T. Johnson 7, B. Hill 4, Harris 2.

NORTH — Maxwell 18, Carpenter 17, Alexander 13, Polk 12, Charleston 5, Tarver 5, Williams 5, Morrow 3, Alford 2, Mosley 1.