By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — The concern over the eye injury that took Juke Harris out of Salisbury’s third-round game lasted only a few seconds on Friday.

Harris was clearly OK. Fans breathed a sigh of relief, as the Wake Forest-bound senior scored Salisbury’s first eight points and got the Hornets started toward a 78-56 victory in the fourth round of the 2A state playoffs.

Still, Randleman, a No. 6 seed that had upset No. 3 Newton-Conover on Tuesday, wasn’t intimidated by Harris’ return to health or by an overflow crowd and stayed in the game longer than expected with second-seeded Salisbury (27-3).

“Randeman surprised us some,” Salisbury coach Albert Perkins said. “Watching film of them, they had some kids that I didn’t think would be able to play with us, but they turned out to be pretty good, better than expected. They didn’t just play with us in the first quarter — they won the first quarter.”

Randleman (23-6) scored the last five points of the quarter to lead 13-10.

“Their defense was tricky,” Perkins said. “They were doing a good job with help side. They packed it back and we weren’t shooting very well early.”

But the second quarter belonged mostly to Harris and Salisbury sophomore Braylon Taylor.

With the Hornets down 14-10, Taylor, who is Salisbury’s second-leading scorer with about 11 points per game, turned the game around with four straight buckets. When Taylor finished his spree, the Hornets led 18-14. They were able to take a 30-22 lead to halftime.

“Braylon is a very confident young man,” Perkins said. “You don’t have to worry about the moment being too big for him to handle.”

Taylor stayed scalding hot in the third quarter. He drilled three 3-pointers in the quarter, as the Hornets started pulling away.

The lead was 17 after three quarters. Perkins was able to empty his bench before the end.

“We’ve learned some things about our team the last three games,” Perkins said. “Three different kinds of opponents, and we’ve adjusted well and we’ve done what we needed to do to keep advancing.”

Harris scored 34, including 11 in the fourth quarter to finish off Randleman. He made three 3-pointers. Taylor’s 19 points all came in the middle two quarters. Mike Geter made a 3-pointer in the second quarter and scored seven. Dashawn Brown chipped in with three paint buckets in the second half.

Randleman’s 6-foot-4 standout Tyshaun Goldston scored 22. Connor Cassidy had 14.

The Hornets lost to Reidsville 59-50 in the fourth round last season. The last time the Hornets reached a regional final was in 2018 when they lost a 71-67 struggle against Forest Hills in Greensboro and fell one step short of the 2A state championship game.

“Our team and our fans are very excited about being in the Final Four,” Perkins said.

The Hornets will get a rematch with Reidsville in the 2A West Regional final at Winston-Salem’s Joel Coliseum, That game will be the final game on Wednesday’s docket and will start at about 8 p.m.

Reidsville (27-0) routed West Stokes 89-50 on Friday. The Rams’ most competitive playoff game so far was an 87-65 victory against Shelby in the third round. Powerful 6-foot-7 post man Kendre Harrison, who shattered a backboard with a dunk in February, and point guard Dionte Neal are rated as two of the nation’s elite sophomore athletes.

“We’ve been on a collision course with Reidsville for a while,” Perkins said. “Now we know when and where we’ll collide.”
Randleman    13    9     12    22    — 56

Salisbury       10    20   21    27    — 78

RANDLEMAN — Goldston 22, Cassidy 14, Farlow 8, Gneiting 5, G. Price 4, Wagner 3.

SALISBURY —  Harris 34, Taylor 19, Geter 7, D.Brown 6, House 3, Walker 3, Dalton 2, Webb 2, Brincefield 2.