From staff and wire reports

There’s a full slate of prep basketball on tap for Tuesday, including a couple of big  county matchups — North Rowan at Salisbury in the CCC and West Rowan at Carson in the SPC.

CCC boys

North Rowan (11-4, 4-0) is in first place in the CCC but faces a challenging week as it takes on both of the other contenders. After visiting Salisbury  (13-5, 3-1) Tuesday, the Cavaliers are home against Lexington (13-4, 3-1) on Friday.

North Rowan has won at Lexington, while Lexington has won at Salisbury.

Andrew Mitchell has an astounding record as North Rowan’s coach in regular-season conference games  — 58-4.

North Rowan went 6-0 against Salisbury the previous two seasons, including a Christmas tournament victory and  a state-playoff victory. The teams have not met this season. If Salisbury beats North Rowan it would mean that the Hornets have beaten every school in the county this season.

Jalen Sanders, Josh Handy and Joseph Scott are consistent double-figure scorers for North Rowan, while Salisbury’s scoring is usually led by Deshawn Troutman and D.J. Alexander. Both teams are young. None of those five of those players is a senior.

Lexington is at Thomasville (5-9, 1-3). West Davidson (9-8, 1-3) is at East Davidson (2-15, 0-4).

CCC girls

North Rowan’s girls (8-5, 3-1) are coming off a big win against Thomasville that gave the Cavaliers a firm grip on second place in the league.

North Rowan will be favored to to win again at Salisbury (3-15, 1-3).

The Cavaliers usually are led by Demeria Robinson and Aliyah Farmer, and Special Washington is coming off a 16-point game.

Salisbury ended a nine-game slide by blitzing West Davidson 59-28 on Friday behind double-figure games by Breya Philpot, Julia Honeycutt and Tyzarea Alexander.

North Rowan swept Salisbury last season.

Lexington (5-9, 2-2) is at Thomasville (11-4, 2-2) in a battle for third. West Davidson (1-16, 0-4) is at East Davidson (18-0, 4-0), one of the state’s top teams.

SPC boys

In a nine-team league where no one is great and everyone is reasonably dangerous, Cox Mill (13-4, 9-2) and Hickory Ridge (15-4, 9-2) are currently the top dogs.

Cox Mill and Hickory Ridge already have split their two meetings, with one game decided by a single point and the other settled  by two points. Cox Mill dropped a game to Carson. Hickory Ridge lost to West Rowan.

Concord (13-6, 8-3) and  West Rowan (11-7, 7-3) are still in the race, although Concord is 0-3 against Cox Mill and Hickory Ridge, so it has its work cut out.

East Rowan (7-10, 4-7) is at Hickory Ridge Tuesday, and no has any idea what to expect from the Mustangs. They scored 29 points last Tuesday in losing to Carson. They rained 3s and scored 70 in losing in OT to Concord on Friday.

For what it’s worth, Hickory Ridge won the first meeting 63-49.

• Cox Mill is at South Rowan Tuesday. Seventh-place South Rowan (4-13, 3-8) hasn’t beaten any of the league’s top six teams, but it’s scared some of them. If scorers Lavon Hill, Qwan Rhyne and Tireek Wilder  have a good night at the same time, the Raiders have a shot at an upset.

Cox Mill won 70-64 the first time the teams met. Rhyne didn’t play in that one.

• West Rowan at Carson (8-10, 5-5) would be fun even if it wasn’t a critical league game for both teams.

West Rowan coach Mike Gurley has two freshmen — Caleb Mauldin and Martavio Rankin —  in key roles, but he also has two  seniors in Celexus Long and Greg Joseph who are having outstanding seasons.

Carson coach Brian Perry, once Gurley’s assistant, will be going for his 100th career win, adding to the excitement, but who knows what will happen? Carson has been amazingly unpredictable. While the Cougars have beaten Cox Mill, they also got mauled by ninth-place Northwest Cabarrus in their most recent outing.

The teams already have played twice this season. Carson won 68-60 in a league game. West Rowan won 53-47 in the Christmas tournament on its way to the championship.

Joseph had 18 points against Carson in the Christmas tournament, while Marquez McCain were Jonathan Rucker were big for Carson in the game the Cougars won.

West Rowan was 2-4 at one point, so the Falcons have won nine of their last 12.

Carson has two three-game winning streaks and one six-game losing streak.

Central Cabarrus (5-12, 2-8) is at Concord (13-6, 8-3). The Spiders will try to take care of business and will hope for some help from South Rowan or East Rowan.

SPC girls

It’s been a three-team race from the outset, with Hickory Ridge (15-3, 10-1) still the frontrunner and with East Rowan (15-2, 9-2) and South Rowan (12-5, 9-2) still chasing the  Ragin’ Bulls.

Hickory Ridge has beaten both of the other contenders, while East Rowan won against South Rowan. East Rowan also lost to Central Cabarrus, while Hickory Ridge was upset by West Rowan.

East Rowan and Hickory Ridge will stage a rematch Tuesday in Harrisburg. The first meeting came early — the fourth game of the season for the Mustangs — and the Ragin’ Bulls played a terrific game in Granite Quarry and won 58-48.

East Rowan has won 12 of 13 since that loss. Kelli Fisher and Shenell Pharr are having very strong seasons, but the X-factor for the Mustangs is Kaleigh Troutman coming off the bench to create havoc by pounding the boards. Troutman is usually a factor in the big games, and they don’t get much bigger than this one as far as the regular season.

South Rowan will be an interested spectator, as one of its rivals has to lose. The Raiders figure to hold serve at home against Cox Mill (5-12, 4-7). South Rowan won 36-23 at Cox Mill.

• West Rowan (7-11, 5-5) goes to Carson (8-10, 5-5).

Based on records, it’s an even matchup, although Carson whipped the Falcons 54-38  early in the season in Mount Ulla behind big games by Alex Allen and Sydney Huffman. Allen, a senior, has scored in double figures 44 straight games.

Both teams want to play fast, so it could get into the 60s. West Rowan lost 77-68 to South Rowan in a wild one on Friday. West Rowan has topped 60 five times this season. Carson has topped 60 three times in its last four outings.

West Rowan junior Khaila Hall is averaging 15.2 points per game.

Carson coach Brooke Misenheimer also is approaching 100 career wins. She has 98 (that’s a correction of an earlier count) heading into this week’s action. It’s been a remarkable comeback by Misenheimer, who was 4-67 after her first three seasons.

This is a huge week for Carson, which is taking  on rivals West Rowan and South Rowan back-to-back. The Raiders visit Friday.

Central Cabarrus (8-9, 5-5) is battling with Carson and West Rowan for fourth in  a girls league with three distinct layers. The Vikings are at Concord (4-4, 1-10).

CPC

North Davidson at Davie

Parkland at R.J. Reynolds

Mount Tabor at West Forsyth

Davie’s girls (13-5, 5-2) are in third place behind unbeaten R.J. Reynolds and Mount Tabor.

MECKA

Vance at A.L. Brown

North Meck at West Charlotte

Hopewell at Mallard Creek

Hough at Robinson

Both A.L. Brown teams are tied for fifth in an eight-team league.

Middle school wrestling

Southeast’s Patriots, coached by Tim Boyd, won the Rowan County Middle School conference  regular-season wrestling championship with a 13-1 record.

Mooresville won the conference tournament: Team scores: Mooresville 183, West Rowan 177, Southeast 151, Erwin 139, North Rowan 81, Corriher-Lipe 63, Knox 54, China Grove 45.5.

Eleven Southeast wrestlers placed in the tournament. Southeast champions in the tournament were Cameron Sadler, Daniel Lipe, Mathew Sloop and Michael Sloop. Joshua Vega, Timmy Boyd, Gerry Cipres, Alex Erazo, Joshua Malloy and Gabe Frick placed second. Zachary Martlock finished third.

Blue Bears third

Livingstone’s undefeated women’s basketball team is tied for third in the Atlantic Region rankings.

North Hills basketball

The North Hills elementary school boys won 31-13 against  Phoenix Montessori.

JaQues Sloan led the Eagles with 10 points. Aydan Patterson scored nine, and Stephen Johnson had seven.

7th-grade basketball

Erwin’s boys won 35-25 against West Rowan Middle to open the season.

Logan Forbis scored 13 for the Eagles. Erwin also got big games from  Brandon Jefferson and Hijkeem Still.

The Eagles play Corriher Lipe on Tuesday.

• Middle school basketball scores and leading scorers  (five or more points) can be submitted to sports@salisburypost.com for publication.

South Y basketball

The South Rowan Y is accepting registrations for a boys high school basketball league for grades 9-12.

This league is partnered with the Salisbury, and East Rowan YMCAs.

The deadline to register is Feb. 7.  The ost is $40 for members and $70 for potential members.

South Y Adult Church league registration goes  through Feb. 5.

The cost is $425 per team.  Contact Carvie Kepley at 704-857-7011, ckepley@rowanymca.org.

NCHSAA

Davis Whitfield, commissioner of the NCHSAA  for the past five years, has been selected chief operating officer of the National Federation of State High School Associations, effective July 1, 2015.

SAC basketball

SAC basketball players of the week are Carson-Newman’s Carson Brooks and Wingate’s Andrea Bertrand.

SEC basketball

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Freshman A’ja Wilson scored 18 points, defending Southeastern Conference player of the year Tiffany Mitchell added 16 points and Alaina Coates had 12 points and 11 rebounds as No. 1 South Carolina remained unbeaten with a 79-61 victory over 12th-ranked Texas A&M on Monday night.

The Gamecocks (19-0, 7-0 SEC), who remained on top of the rankings for a 10th straight poll earlier Monday, put away the Aggies with a 27-8 run in the second half after seeing their double-digit lead shrink to 40-38. That’s when Mitchell made four consecutive free throws to start the run. She added four more points and Coates scored six points as South Carolina took control.

Texas A&M (16-5, 4-3) had been the last time to beat the Gamecocks at Colonial Life Arena in 2013. But the Aggies struggled shooting as 14-point-a-game scorer Courtney Williams was 3 of 21 from the field.