Coach Kelly Everhart’s Cavaliers clinched the Central Carolina Conference championship here Saturday night and moved a step closer to a perfect league record.

North, 10-0 in the CCC with either one or two games to play, has a shot at becoming only the second Cavaliers team every to go unbeaten through an entire conference schedule. The 1963 team won all 14 games in the old North Piedmont Conference.

“I thought that we were in a real good situation to go ahead and clinch it,” said Everhart, North’s second-year head coach. “I felt real good about it.”

Ledford entered the makeup game with a mathematical chance to tie North at the end of the regular season, but the Panthers slipped to 5-4 and a tie for second with High Point Central.

“Every time we come over here, they play us very, very tough,” said Everhart. “They’re so fundamental, and they’re usually so patient in controlling the tempo of the game.Of course, we like to fly up and down the court. Early on, I thought they did a real good job of slowing the tempo down.Later on in the game, maybe the tough game that they played last night helped us, because I thought we were kind of wearing them down a little bit.”

Ledford had lost to Salisbury 73-63 the night before on the Panthers’ home court.

The Cavaliers will go after their 11th straight league win at home against big rival Salisbury on Friday night. There’s also still the possibility of having to play a postponed game with Lexington. It can’t be played next week, because Lexington has three games on its schedule already.

North took charge in the first half with a 15-0 run that started in the first period and ended in the second. The Cavaliers led 21-9 after that hot streak. The lead reached 15 twice before North went into the locker room with a 33-22 halftime advantage.

The Panthers got within eight at 38-30, then North surged back to lead by 16 several times.

Point guard Dre Byrd led North’s scoring with 24 points, and center Bryan McCullough and guard Chris Phillips added 12 and 11, respectively.

Phillips, an unsung starter, scored in double figures for the second straight night and only the fourth time all season, but he did much more than score. The junior contributed six rebounds, five steals and a couple of assists to the victory.

“Chris is probably the best all-around guard we’ve got,” said Byrd of his teammate. “He’s probably the best defender. He can shoot. He can play the point. He can even play a little three man (small forward) if he’s got to.”

“I like my role,” said Phillips, who transferred to North from Salisbury in the middle of last season. “When everybody focuses on the top scorers, that’s when I can just do my thing.”

Asked if he thought he had just played his best game, Phillips responded, “Yeah, defensively. You can always get better, though. I’ll be trying to work hard and get better every time I get on the court.”

Coach Everhart said Phillips is definitely an underrated player on a team that’s won 10 games in a row and improved its overall mark to 17-3.

“His stats don’t always show up in the paper, because he doesn’t score a whole lot of points for us, but he’s got amazingly quick hands. He comes up with so many turnovers and then turns those turnovers into points. It’s not necessarily him scoring the points, but he’s making passes so his teammates can score,” said Everhart.

Phillips, a cousin of former Salisbury and Western Carolina University star Bobby Phillips, decided to transfer toNorth last winter after playing a few varsity games early in the season with Salisbury.

“When I first came (to North), I played a couple of games on the jayvees my sophomore year. Then Coach liked me, and Coach moved me up. From then on, I’ve just been struggling, trying to make it to ChapelHill,” said Phillips, referring to the site of the state 2A championship game inMarch.

As for the championship, Phillips said, “We were looking for an undefeated (overall) season, but it’s not happening.You’ve got to go with what you’ve got.”

Teammate Byrd said, “That ain’t our main goal yet. It’s coming up.”

Everhart knew, before the season started, he had a team that could go after the title, but he had a conservative outlook.

“I was just hoping we could make a run for first place. I felt like the kids that are on this team really bonded last year. I felt like we stood a real good chance of winning the conference. If anybody had told me we’d be 10-0 or 11-0 right now, I would probably have shook my head and said, ‘Maybe.’”

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NOTES: North has now won eight conference championships in the school’s 42 seasons, five of them coming in the last 16 years. ... McCullough had 10 rebounds, leading the Cavaliers to a 39-30 advantage on the boards. ... North was 23-for-55 (41.8 percent) on field goals, while Ledford was 20-for-54 (27 percent). ... Guard Chase Adams, who had scored 32 points against Salisbury the previous night, led the Panthers with 22, while Sam Cecil and Brantley Kellum had 11 each. ... The Panthers are 9-10 overall.

NORTH ROWAN (66) — McCullough 12, Reddick 4, Lawing 5, Byrd 24, Phillips 11, J. Miller 4, A. Miller, Sturdivant 3, Witherspoon 3, Davis.

LEDFORD (56) — Adams 22, Hall 5, Cecil 12, Kellum 11, Davis 4, Smith 2, Ralls, Coleman.