Staff report

SPENCER — You can argue that the NCHSAA’s RPI rankings didn’t do a great job seeding the 1A West girls.

Bishop McGuinness, which has won the last two 1A girls state championships and is clearly the team to beat in the 1A West bracket, was  seeded No. 2. McGuinness has lost four games, but they’ve been to stacked private schools and to 4A powerhouse Charlotte Catholic.

In the second round, McGuinness (24-4) breezed by 37 points, while No. 1 seed Mountain Heritage was squeezing past 16th-seeded conference rival Rosman, 42-41.

North Rowan, winners of 20 in a row, probably deserved better than a No. 7 seed — North handled No. 4 seed Albemarle twice — but after two blowout playoff victories, the Cavaliers now get McGuinness on the road in Round 3. That’s a tough draw, but the Cavaliers saw it coming as soon as the brackets were released.

That game will be played tonight at 7:30 p.m. as the second game of a doubleheader. The McGuinness boys will be playing Murphy at 6 p.m. Murphy is a mountain team that will be traveling roughly 260 miles to Kernersville to take on McGuinness, so they’re getting the early game.

The doubleheader format probably means a large pro-McGuinness crowd and a challenging road environment for the Cavaliers.

The Massey Ratings give North Rowan (25-3) a 28 percent chance of winning. The score projection is a 56-47 McGuinness victory.

While the McGuinness Villains are in the third round every year, North is in the third round for the third year in a row.

North lost to McGuinness 66-47, at home, in the third round two years ago. North’s current starting five — the Goodlett twins, Brittany Ellis, Dasia Elder and Krisstyle Stockton all played in that game — and the Cavaliers also had Hannah Wilkerson and Chloee Stoner.

North is very experienced and has serious firepower, with 2,000-point scorer Bailee Goodlett, a Catawba recruit, averaging a county-leading 26.4 points per game.

Ellis is averaging 21.1 points per game and is the No. 2 scorer in the county. Then there’s Elder, who has been scorching hot of late. She averages 10.9 points, but lately she’s been good for five 3-pointers per game.

North is under-sized, but guards opponents fiercely. Bloom Goodlett is the team’s best defender. Stockton is a determined rebounder.

Adelaide Jernigan, was North’s biggest problem in that game two years ago. She was a freshman when she went off on the Cavaliers from the 3-point line. She’s now a 5-foot-11 junior and averages 19.1 points. She has been offered by NC State and scored 24 in Friday’s romp against Hayesville.

Jernigan missed six games with an injury, but the Villains still won five of them. The only loss in that stretch was to Greensboro Day. When Jernigan returned to action, McGuinness beat Independence, a 4A school that finished 23-6.

McGuinness has experienced seniors Kiersten Varner and Emma Wagoner. McGuiness has added some young players that the Cavaliers haven’t seen such as sophomores Jenna Moore and Claire Sullivan. They both scored in double figures last Friday.

It should be a high-level 1A game. If the Cavaliers continue to pour in 3-pointers — they made 12 last Friday — they’ve got a chance.

The winner gets third-seeded Cherokee or sixth-seeded Thomas Jefferson.