Thursday’s roundup: Rivalry basketball matchups, state swimming results and Mountain Island Charter college football commitment

By Richard Walker

Hunter Huss and Shelby came out on top Thursday in high school boys basketball meetings of the oldest rivalries in Gastonia and Cleveland County, respectively.

Huss won 56-52 at Ashbrook in a makeup game from Jan. 26. It was Huss’ fourth straight win in the rivalry and eighth in the last nine games to even the all-time series between the two Gastonia high schools at 64 victories apiece.

Huss and Ashbrook first played in the 1964-65 season and they’ve played games at 14 high schools and four other sites over the years.

Shelby won 96-75 over visiting Kings Mountain in a non-conference matchup.

It was Shelby’s fourth win in the last five meetings of a rivalry that began more than 100 years ago.

High school girls basketball
Ashbrook 54, Huss 30: Kennette Bess scored 15 points to lead Ashbrook to its 23rd straight win over crosstown rival Huss. Jamya Daniels scored six points for Huss, which still holds a 58-52 all-time lead in the all-time series that began in 1976.

Forestview 67, Forestview 35: Myla Hoover (20 points, 7 steals), Kendall Manning (12 points), Jimena Vazquez (9 points, 12 rebounds 5 blocks) and Megan Baker (6 points, 4 assists) led Forestview and Reece Wolfe had 14 points and Ranija Hamilton 10 for Cramer.

Shelby 65, Kings Mountain 45: Maraja Pass scored 25 points and Ally Hollifield 18 for unbeaten Shelby (12-0). For Kings Mountain (9-3, 8-2), Saniya Wilson (24 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists), Khalia King (9 points) and Aaliyah Byers (2 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks) led the way.

High school basketball playoffs
HighSchoolOT.com made state playoff projections on Thursday as we head toward the final eight days of the 2021 regular season.

The website on Thursday projected Crest (3A), North Lincoln (2A), Shelby (2A) and Lincoln Charter (1A) as top nine boys seeds in their respective 16-team classifications brackets, with Kings Mountain (3A), East Lincoln (2A) and Mountain Island Charter (1A) also making the field with Huss (3A) and South Point (2A) barely missing the 16-team bracket.

Girls teams projected for top seeds are Ashbrook (3A), Shelby (2A) and Bessemer City or Lincoln Charter (1A), with Kings Mountain (3A), East Lincoln (2A), Bessemer City or Lincoln Charter (1A) and Mountain Island Charter (1A) also making the field with Crest (3A) and Forestview (3A) barely missing the field.

Each classification has 32 teams qualify for the state playoffs, which is down from previous years.

High school boys soccer
Cramer 9, Huss 0

High school swimming
Stuart Cramer finished 16th in the N.C. Class 3A swimming and diving champoinships at Cary’s Triangle Aquatic Center.

All of the Storm’s points came from junior Owen Schrieber’s second-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke. Schrieber finished with a time of 50.60 seconds to finish just behind Charlotte Catholic freshman Jacob Wimberly, who finished in 50.44 seconds.

College football
Mountain Island Charter senior kicker and punter Todd Pledger announced on twitter on Wednesday that he had committed to play football at the University of North Carolina.

College men’s basketball
Longwood 57, Gardner-Webb 54: DeShaun Wade’s half court heave with 4.7 seconds left for a 3-pointer was the difference for Longwood as the Lancers scored the last six points of the game to down visiting Gardner-Webb (8-13, 7-9) in the Big South Conference game. Gardner-Webb led 33-24 at halftime and will play at Longwood again on Friday at 4 p.m.