By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

WINSTON-SALEM — If you play long enough in the playoffs, you’re bound to run into some celebrities, and that will be the case for Salisbury’s boys basketball team.

The second-seeded Hornets will take on Reidsville, 27-0 and top-seeded, in a 2A West Regional final being played on Wednesday night at the Joel Coliseum. Tip-off will be sometime after 7 p.m. It will be the fourth game of a four-game day, the main event.

Reidsville’s roster is a who’s who of the state of North’s Carolina football/basketball studs.

Reidsville’s 6-foot-8, 235-pound sophomore Kendre Harrison shattered a backboard last month in a game with Morehead, leaving a totally defeated rim— as well as dazed Morehead players — wrecked beyond all hope of repair.

Harrison averages 19.4 points, 14.9 rebounds and 3.7 blocks on the hardwood, although the muscular lad’s future appears to be unlimited in football. A five-star recruit, he’ll have his pick of colleges as a tight end/defensive end.

His running mate, Dionte Neal is only 5-foot-9, but is quicker than a mongoose and is an electrifying All-State football player as a defensive back/receiver. Neal is also insanely gifted on the hardwood, where he averages 19.3 points, 4.3 steals and 10.9 assists. Yes, 10.9 assists. There are teams that don’t average 10.9 assists.

Think of the quickest basketball player you have ever seen.Whoever it might be, Neal is quicker.

Salisbury battled Harrison and Neal last season when they were freshmen. That was a fourth-round game played on Reidsville’s home court, and the Hornets lost 59-50, but certainly didn’t get embarrassed. Salisbury actually led a cold-shooting Reidsville team 20-15 at the half, but Neal took over the game with a 13-point third quarter, and then he made a bunch of free throws when the Hornets had to chase him in the fourth. Salisbury had a 15-game winning streak stopped and called it a season at 22-6. No one knew it at the time, but that would be the last game Bryan Withers would coach for the Hornets.

The Hornets still have most of the players who fought the good fight at Reidsville. Returning players accounted for 47 of Salisbury’s 50 points in that game, including 23 by the Hornets’ own celebrity —District 11 Player of the Year Juke Harris. Jalen Chunn, who made a 3-pointer in that game, graduated, but Mike Geter, Dashawn Brown, Deuce Walker and Hank Webb are still in the rotation.

The Hornets (27-3), who have won their last 20 games, are significantly better than they were at this time last season, as new coach Albert Perkins has added exciting sophomore wing player Braylon Taylor and the Hornets also have guard Bryce Dalton, whom they lost about halfway through last season.

Jeter,a  Wake Forest recruit who will be playing in his future home arena, averages an astounding 31.5 points per game, but there’s a major drop-off after that. Taylor averages 10.7 points, although he scored 17 and 19 last week. Geter gets almost 10 per game. Dalton averages almost 9. Walker, Brown and Webb are all in the 5 points per game range.

The bad news is Reidsville also received reinforcements from last season. Johnniyus “J9” Sharpe transferred from Cummings High in Burlington to Reidsville before the school year, looking to raise his profile and to win state titles in two sports. He is a 6-foot-3 prototype wide receiver on the gridiron and averages 17.6 points in basketball. He scored 27 in Friday’s fourth-round destruction of West Stokes. Sharpe combines with Neal and Harrison to give Reidsville a trio of all-region players.

Reidsville has more. Aljariqq “Al” Lee is a Barton football recruit, but he also is a solid 6-foot-3 basketball player. Also on board for the rambunctious Rams is 6-foot-4 Cam’Ron Jones. Like Lee, he gets about 7 points per game.

When Reidsville beat Clinton 28-18 for the 2A football state championship a few months ago, Lee threw four touchdown passes — two to Neal and one each to Jones and Harrison.

While Salisbury is the underdog, it’s not an impossible mission. Reidsville can be beaten — Farmville Central proved that in the 2023 2A state championship game.

The Hornets are 3.5-point underdogs according to the Massey Ratings, which are often accurate. Salisbury has a win probability of 42 percent.

The score projection is Reidsville 71, Salisbury 68. It could be an exciting night.