From staff reports

Two professional golfers with Salisbury ties are moving up.

Elliot Gealy, a former Salisbury High star, made seven birdies and shot a final-round 66 in the PGA qualifying school finals that will take him to the Nationwide Tour next season.

Gealy qualified for the final stage of Q-School by virtue of birdies on his final two holes of the second stage, held in McKinney, Texas.

Gealy finished the tournament at 1-over-par, tied for 86th with two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen.

Salisbury native Tripp Isenhour is going back to the PGA Tour. He avoided the dreaded Q-School by virtue of his earnings on the Nationwide Tour in 2006.

Catawba wins showdown

Ne’Keithia Howard fired in a career-high 24 points to lead Catawba’s women’s basketball team to an 82-72 win over Pfeiffer on Tuesday night at Merner Gym.

Catawba improved to 7-1 with its seventh straight win, while the Falcons lost their first game of the season and are now 6-1.

Howard scored 16 of her 24 points after halftime. She was 9-of-10 from the field. She added six rebounds and four assists.

Tamekia Foster scored 17 for Catawba, which had a 45-33 edge on the glass.

Raven Truslow led the Falcons with 26 points.

The game featured 12 lead changes and eight ties.

CATAWBA (82) — Howard 24, Foster 17, Muldrow 10, Clark 8, Baxter 8, LoSauro 5, Bartlett 4, Hampton 3, Higgins 2, Colombo 1, Easter.

PFEIFFER (72) — Truslow 26, Smith 14, Clay 11, Brittingham 10, Athill 7, Kennings 4.

Catawba 37 45 — 82

Pfeiffer 33 39 — 72

Davie teams split

When North Rowan’s boys travel to Davie County tonight, it will be a game between two teams coming off losses.

While North dropped a contest to East Rowan on Tuesday night, Davie was losing in the final seconds to North Iredell 62-58.

Davie was tied with the Raiders at 58 with 26 seconds left. North’s Christopher Tindall hit a layup for a 60-58 lead, and Davie missed two free throws. North then sealed things with two free throws.

Darius Hall led Davie (3-3) with 17 points. Sean Miller and Drew Absher each had 10.

Meisha Fowler’s career-high 28 points led Davie’s girls to a 51-46 win over the Raiders. Joni Garrett added 12 points for the War Eagles (3-3).

Santana Morrison scored 22 for North Iredell.

Prep hoops

East Rowan is at West Rowan on Thursday in a basketball doubleheader rescheduled from earlier in the season.

Both boys teams are 3-0.

* East Davidson’s girls moved to 5-0 on Wednesday. They beat SW Randolph 55-42 behind Alyssa Cutshaw’s 17 points.

* Von Garner’s 24 points lifted Concord’s girls past North Davidson 68-57.

* Quan Rucker’s 22 points helped West Iredell’s boys beat Alexander Central 57-49.

* Concord’s boys team beat previously unbeaten North Davidson 61-48, even though the Spiders don’t yet have their football players. Howard Hurt scored 16 points for the Black Knights.

East jayvee girls win

The East Rowan jayvee girls basketball team beat North Rowan 37-22 on Tuesday.

East (3-0) was led by Mackenzie Holshouser’s 13 points, Tempest Means had eight points.

North’s leading scorer was Brittany Alexander with eight.

North Hills basketball

The North Hills boys basketball team defeated Hickory Day 34-17.

Cole Honeycutt scored 19 points. Sam Humble and Jonah Marsh had 10 rebounds each.

Middle schools

West Rowan’s eighth-grade boys basketball team defeated Corriher-Lipe

49-14.

B.J. Sherrill led West (4-0) with 17 points and four assists. Domonique Noble scored 13 points. John Knox added seven for the Bulldogs. Montreal Steele had three blocks.

Tevin Jones scored six points for the Yellow Jackets (3-1).

Keller loses bout

Brian Keller (West Rowan) was defeated by Roger Bowling in Saturday’s mixed martial arts middleweight title fight at Caged Inferno 4 held at Louisville Gardens.

Women’s college hoops

Shayla Fields (Salisbury) scored 18 points and had three rebounds and three assists to lead N.C. State to a 65-54 win over Winthrop on Monday.

* Brittany Roberson (West Rowan) scored eight points as Lees-McRae defeated Converse 67-61 on Tuesday for its first win of the season.

* Ashley Watkins (Salisbury) scored 11 points as Queens defeated Converse 72-61 on Monday.

*Allison Schafer (Davie County) scored 10 points in Mars Hill’s 62-47 loss to UNC Asheville on Monday.

* Meredith’s Brittany Cornelius (East Rowan) scored 17 points and had five rebounds in an 83-60 loss to Ferrum on Monday.

Men’s college hoops

Tristan Rankin (North Rowan) scored nine points and Marcus Mitchell (West Rowan) had three for St.Paul’s in a 111-75 loss to Bowie State on Tuesday.

* Avery Patterson (A.L. Brown) was held to three points as St. John’s beat St. Francis 59-42 on Tuesday.