A frenetic pace in the final game of the 2A Central Carolina Conference regular season gave North a 79-56 win and left the Cavaliers a perfect 12-0 in the league. The conference tournament opens today at Ledford with North as the No. 1 seed. Lexington is No. 5 — now with no hope of reaching the state playoffs.

Monday’s game — cancelled earlier in the season due to exams — was played because a win would have moved the Wildcats (10-12 overall, 5-7 CCC) all the way to the second seed, tied with three other teams at 6-6 but with the tiebreaker edge. The only way Lexington could make the playoffs now is to win the CCCTournament, which it can’t do because N.C. High School Athletic Association rules prohibit teams from playing more than three games in one week.

“We knew it’d mean more to them than for us,”North senior forward Mario Sturdivant said. “We just played to keep our undefeated record in the conference.”

Sturdivant scored a game-high 21 points to help the Cavs pull away after a slow start. North forced nine Lexington turnovers in the first quarter but threw six of those free chances away as the period grinded to a halt with North up 12-11.

“We probably had more turnovers and miscues in the first quarter than we had all year long,”North head coach Kelly Everhart said. “I thought we’d get into the flow of the game much more quickly than we did.”

Wildcat Junior Hairston hit two free throws to give his team a 22-21 lead with three minutes to play in the half before North exploded on a run that would end the game. Chris Phillips and Graham Hosch hit open 3-pointers on consecutive possessions and Dre Byrd scored in the lane. Bryan McCullough’s shot with 30 seconds to go put North up 32-22 at the half.

The Cavaliers pulled away slowly in the third quarter, hampered by eight turnovers in the period as the game’s tempo increased.

“They’re (mistakes) coming from a lack of patience. It was a turnover game,”Sturdivant said. “That’s our game, but if we slow it down Coach would probably be happy.”

Everhart liked what he saw in the final two minutes of the third quarter. Byrd raced down the court and found Sturdivant for an emphatic alley-oop slam. On North’s next trip, Sturdivant skied for a tip-in off an inbounds pass, then closed the quarter with a 3-pointer for a 54-37 Cavalier lead.

He had nine points in the quarter, and Lexington crept no closer than 16 in the fourth against a North team that ran to a 19-3 overall record in the regular season. TheCavaliers’ only losses came to 4A power Davie County and 3A force West Rowan (twice).

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NOTES: TheCavaliers lost McCullough for a short time Monday. North’s 6-foot-5 center came angrily back to the bench at the close of the first quarter and actually left the gym. Assistant PaulBenfield chased after him and McCullough returned a minute into the second quarter, then rebounded with seven points, five rebounds and two blocks in the second half. “He was frustrated because he had a mismatch and we didn’t recognize it. Maybe he didn’t do a good job of handling his emotions, but he’ll handle it differently next time,”Everhart said. “Bryan is such an even-keeled player any way, it was out of character. That’s the first time I’ve seen that side of him, and I’m sure it’ll be the last.” … Lexington plays High Point Central in the tournament Wednesday night at 8:30. North takes on the winner of that game Thursday night at 7:30.

LEXINGTON (56) — McNeair 8, Holhouser 9, Hogan 2, Horton 1, Carroll 7, Barnes 2, Dawkins 2, Partee 12, Curry 2, Cobbs, Royster, McCown 2, Hairston 7, Holt 2.

NORTH ROWAN (79) — Byrd 11, Hosch 6, Phillips 7, A. Miller 2, Davis 4, McCullough 15, Sturdivant 21, Reddick 6, Witherspoon 2, J. Miller 4, Lawing 1.

Lexington 11 11 15 19 — 56