Randleman Tigers build more momentum, take boys’ title in holiday tourney

Randleman’s Tyshaun Goldston goes up for a shot as Asheboro’s Jalial Timmons, left, applies pressure and Randleman’s Chase Farlow and Asheboro’s Zak Blackwell look on. (PJ Ward-Brown / Randolph Record)

ASHEBORO – As the good times keep rolling for Randleman’s boys’ basketball team, it’s what the Tigers expect.

“I’m not really surprised,” senior Tyshaun Goldston said. “We could play a little better, but we should be in the spot we’re in.”

After winning last week’s SportsTone.net Christmas Invitational, Randleman has made it almost halfway through the regular season without a loss.

“It’s a talented group, a bunch of seniors and juniors,” coach Daniel Mitchell said. “It’s pretty easy to coach them. We are deeper, for sure.”

The latest success unfolded during the tournament championship game with a 56-47 victory against host Asheboro.

Goldston, who was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, scored 19 points on 6-for-10 shooting from the field with two 3-pointers. Jireh Price had 17 points and Pacey Wagner added eight points.

“It’s a good feeling,” Randleman junior Connor Cassidy said strong start to the season. “It goes back to knowing each other. I’ve been playing with them since my freshman year.”

Senior Chase Farlow said the Tigers (11-0) embrace the familiarity. He said the goal will be making a long postseason run, so that at this stage “hopefully we’re only a third of the way through the season.”

But just because it’s an experienced team doesn’t mean the Tigers won’t face challenges.

“We’ve got to win those games,” Farlow said.

The tournament final brought a unique situation because gym lighting was reduced after the game extended beyond 11 p.m. Saturday due to a facility timing mechanism. That made for a different type of setting, but the Tigers made it work.

It was a rematch of the 2023 final, which was won by Asheboro. Price and Farlow joined Goldston on the all-tournament team.

Asheboro (9-2) has lost twice to the Tigers this season. Jalial Timmons’ 19 points and Osiris Rodriguez’s 11 points in the final paced the Blue Comets, and they were both on the all-tournament team.

Randleman settled for a 59-46 victory against Eastern Guilford in the first round. That was a more comfortable margin than the one-point escape for the Tigers last year when the teams met on the tournament’s opening day.

The Tigers toppled Thomasville 59-36 in the semifinals, racing to a 16-0 lead. Price scored 12 points and Goldston and Walker posted 11 points apiece.

In the first round, Asheboro’s Jewel Barrett-Riggins notched 13 points, Timmons had 11 points and Rodriguez scored the game’s first six points and finished with 10 in the Blue Comets’ 66-33 victory against Chatham Charter in the first-ever meeting between the programs.

Rodriguez pumped in 25 points in a 55-43 semifinal victory against Burlington Williams.

Southwestern Randolph’s boys fell into a 33-12 hole to Burlington Williams in the first round, with a running clock used for nearly the final five minutes in the 72-33 thumping. Brayden Chapman scored 10 points for the Cougars.

In consolation games, Eastern Guilford decked Trinity 68-45 and Chatham Charter beat Southwestern Randolph 64-46.

Third place went to Burlington Williams, a 70-62 overtime winner against Thomasville. Chatham Charter took fifth place by defeating Eastern Guilford 40-33. Southwestern Randolph nipped Trinity 61-60 in the seventh-place game,

Other all-tournament selections were Jaeden Smith (Burlington Williams), Danarius Gibson (Thomasville), Gabe McKoy (Chatham Charter), Tim Sanders (Eastern Guilford), Chapman (Southwestern Randolph) and Walker Parrish (Trinity).