Staff report

SALISBURY — Juke Harris is expected to return to action on Friday at 7 p.m. when Salisbury’s boys basketball team hosts Randleman in a fourth-round game in the 2A state playoffs.

The Hornets, 26-3 and winners of their last 19, are seeded second in the 3A West bracket and have beaten Anson, Lincoln Charter and Bandys in the playoffs.

The Anson game was a stroll. The Lincoln Charter game was a challenge. The Bandys game was extremely easy for a third-round game, even with Harris exiting with an eye injury in the first quarter. Harris returned to the bench in the third quarter and probably could have played had it been necessary, but it wasn’t necessary. His teammates had the game well in hand at that point.

Harris has put up staggering, mind-boggling numbers, more than 900 points this season, but his supporting cast is better than a lot of fans realize. They had a chance to shine Tuesday for coach Albert Perkins, and Braylon Taylor, Bryce Dalton, Deuce Walker and Mike Geter took turns torching Bandys. The final was 90-52.

Walker is a 5-foot-10 forward who scores on layups and free throws, so for him to get 14 points required a Herculean effort on the boards. It wasn’t a career high for him, but it was a season high.

Taylor, Dalton and Geter can be streaky as shooters, but all three were on target, on Tuesday.

Win or lose, this will be the last game in the historic SHS gym for a strong Salisbury senior class that features Harris, Geter, Walker and Dashawn Brown.

Harris, of course, is Wake Forest’s prize recruit in the Class of 2024 and the leading scorer in Salisbury and Rowan County history. Geter, Walker and Brown are multi-sport athletes who will be moving on to play college football.

If the Hornets beat Randleman, they’ll advance to next week’s Final Four that will be played at Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem. Top-seeded Reidsville is expected to be waiting for whoever emerges from the Salisbury-Randleman matchup, although Reidsville (26-0) still has to win on Friday against Cinderella West Stokes to make that official.

Sixth-seeded Randleman (23-5) wasn’t supposed to win Tuesday, but the Tigers prevailed on the road at third-seeded Newton-Conover.

Randleman has won its last five games.

As far as common opponents, there is one. Randleman lost to the Central Davidson squad that Salisbury smashed in the second half of the Christmas tournament championship game at Catawba.

Randleman also lost by hefty margins to Asheboro twice. For what it’s worth, Carson went down to the wire with Asheboro in the first round of the 3A playoffs.

The biggest potential problem for the Hornets is 6-foot-4 forward Tyshaun Golden. The Randleman star’s future is on the gridiron as a wideout, as the junior already has received Division I offers from Charlotte and Coastal Carolina. But Goldston likes to compete year-round and is also a fine track man and basketball player. He averages 17 points and nine rebounds. He blocks several shots per game.

Guard Greg Price is the No. 2 scorer with 14 points per game and is the leader of the Tigers. He’s the only senior who plays heavy minutes for a young team.

The third double-figure scorer is sophomore guard Connor Cassidy, who gets almost 11 points per game.

A sell-out is expected. Fans are advised to get there early.