Prep girls: Randleman looks to run through PAC Tournament at home

RANDLEMAN – One victory is all it will take for Randleman to reach the Piedmont Athletic Conference Tournament championship on its home court in girls’ basketball.

The Tigers will be going for a third consecutive tournament title if they top the winner of a game between fourth-seeded Uwharrie Charter Academy and fifth-seeded Wheatmore in the semifinal round.

Other matchups at the beginning of the week pitted sixth-seeded Eastern Randolph at third-seeded Providence Grove and seventh-seeded Trinity visiting second-seeded Southwestern Randolph.

Wednesday’s semifinals are slated for the site of the higher seed. Randleman is the designated site for Friday night’s final regardless of who has advanced.

Randleman will have had more than a week layoff before opening tournament play. The Tigers had only one game last week and that came with Tuesday’s 56-24 home victory against Trinity as Audra Petty scored 26 points.

Other teams in the PAC also played Thursday night to close the regular season.

** Wheatmore defeated visiting UCA 50-25 last Tuesday, but then fell 53-49 to visiting Providence Grove with a chance to pull even with UCA in the standings.

Providence Grove’s Laurel Bernhardt racked up 20 points and teammate Asia Steverson had 15 points in the Wheatmore game. Earlier in the week, the Patriots won 53-43 at Eastern Randolph behind Jada Nixon’s 21 points.

** Southwestern Randolph won 58-36 at UCA last Thursday in its lone game of the week, capping a 21-3 regular season. Maddie Strider had 21 points and Caressa King posted 19 points to push the Cougars’ winning streak to three games.

** Eastern Randolph topped winless Trinity 51-25 for its second PAC victory, improving to 3-10 in road games.

** In the Mid-Piedmont Conference, Asheboro’s fifth-place finish meant a Tuesday league tournament quarterfinal at fourth-seeded Central Davidson. A victory would have given the Blue Comets a semifinal home game against top-seeded Oak Grove. Asheboro is the designated site for the conference’s semifinals and final.

Asheboro won 49-25 against visiting Ledford last week for its fifth victory of the season and second triumph in Mid-Piedmont Conference play.