Coach Drew Mathews’ Hornets, who officially qualified for the state 2A playoffs, rolled past North Stanly 77-59 in the first round of the Central Carolina Conference Tournament at the Ledford gym on Wednesday night.

“Like I told them tonight, for about 12 minutes we played as good as we’ve ever played,” said Mathews, whose third-seeded Hornets (11-14) will face No. 2 Ledford (11-13) in the semifinals at 7:30 p.m. Friday. “I told them if we could do that for 32 minutes, we would be incredible. It could happen,” added the Salisbury coach.

Salisbury was 6-13 after losing to HighPoint Central on Jan. 21. The Hornets are 5-1 since then, falling only to first-place North Rowan last week.

“We haven’t had that game all season where everyone came in and was focused at the same time. That would be scary to watch and see. I would like to see that one night,” said Mathews.

The Hornets are assured of one of the CCC’s four state playoff berths, since the bottom three seeds — Lexington, North Stanly and East Davidson — have all been eliminated in the league tourney. But Salisbury is aiming for the league’s No. 2 seed, rather than No. 3 or 4. If the Hornets beat Ledford on Friday, Salisbury would most likely be No. 2.

“If we win that game, we are assured of second place, unless HighPoint Central wins the tournament,” pointed out Mathews.

Ledford, Salisbury and fourth-seeded HighPoint finished in a three-way tie for second place in the regular season.

Forward Thad Pryor was Salisbury’s offensive leader last night with 22 points — his sixth 20-point game of the season. The 6-4 senior was 10-for-14 on field goals and 2-for-2 at the foul line. He grabbed 12 rebounds for a double-double.

Defensively, guard Markeice Daugherty had six steals.

“I think Markeice Daugherty set the tone for us when it comes to defense,” said Mathews.

Pryor and 6-4 senior forward Terry Johnson (eight points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots) were too much inside for the Comets. Salisbury dominated rebounding 48-30.

“We had a pretty good idea we could dominate them, but it wasn’t so much that,” said Pryor. “We just knew that we had to, whether we played them or not. We just need to get rebounds.”

“It’s our time for our seniors to go to work and make the plays,” said Mathews of Pryor and Johnson. “We’ve got two guys who have been together for two years in a row, and they got the job done tonight. They made it look easy tonight, and I hope we come back Friday night here against Ledford and make it look easy again.”

Salisbury topped Ledford 73-63 late in the regular season.

Although the Hornets are assured a playoff berth, Mathews and his team aren’t satisfied yet.

“Our goal is to win the whole thing. We have the talent to do it,” said the coach.

“I just believe that, if we play to our potential, we can beat anybody we play,” said Pryor.

Salisbury, behind Pryor’s 10 points and Johnson’s rebounding, jumped out front 21-12 in the first quarter.

“We came out really focused, and we played well early,” said Mathews. “We took control of the game, and then we held on at the end to win it.”

After coach RickLewis’ Comets pulled within 60-51 with four minutes to play, the Hornets wrapped it up at the foul line, going 15-for-20 in the final 3:31. Point guard Boo Blount was 8-for-8.

North Stanly, which finished 8-15, had problems after losing point guard Junior McRae for seven games because of intestinal surgery before Christmas.

“It’s been one thing after another. We’ve had a lot of hardship,” said Lewis, referring to McRae’s surgery and Tennessee signee O.J. Owens’ football recruiting trips.

“I was proud of the guys. They gave me everything they had. There were just some nights they didn’t have it. We weren’t real consistent,” said Lewis.

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NOTES: Guards Ken Drye and Randall Jones scored 10 points each for the Hornets, while Daugherty tallied nine. ... North Stanly was led by Owens and McRae with 14 and 10, respectively. ... Salisbury went 28-for-54 (51.9 percent) on field goals and 21-for-30 at the foul line, while the Comets were 24-for-70 from the floor (34.3 percent) and 6-for-15 on free throws.

SALISBURY (77) — Pryor 22, Drye 10, T. Johnson 8, Blount 8, J. Johnson 6, Speigner, Daugherty 9, Blanton 4, Leonard, Jones 10.

NORTH STANLY (59) — Watkins 2, Gordon 7, Owens 14, McRae 10, Vaughn 8, Solomon 2, Treadwell, Harris 2, Drye 1, Mangum 5, Carter 2, McDonald 6.

Salisbury 21 15 16 25 — 77