From staff reports
Catawba’s men’s basketball team lost 104-88 against Athletes in Action in exhibition action Monday night at Goodman Gym.
Catawba’s Antonio Houston led all scorers with 27 points. Rob Fields had 13 points, and Dominick Reid contributed 11 points and four assists.
The Indians led 9-0 before allowing an 11-1 run and later falling behind 38-25. Catawba trailed 50-46 at halftime, and Athletes in Action pulled away with a 19-8 run. The Indians finished 9-for-30 from 3-point range.
– Prep soccer
Salisbury’s boys soccer team is scheduled to open the 2A playoffs tonight against wild-card entry Ashe County (11-7-4) at 7 p.m.
The Hornets (20-1-1) had the option of playing either tonight or Wednesday as the home team.
“Our guys preferred to play and not sit around a day,” coach Tom Sexton said. “It’s not like we’ve got a lot of new stuff to put in at this point so let’s play.”
Sexton believes it’s a tough first-round draw for the seventh-ranked Hornets.
“Ashe will give us all we can handle,” he said. “They’ve got a great coach in Richard Gill. They play in a tough league with Forbush, Starmount and Wilkes Central. They beat Starmount and tied Watauga and Hibriten, and those are good soccer names.
“As a wild card, they’ve got nothing to lose. They thought their season was over, and then they got a call. They’ll play very loose.”
The Hornets have played many competitive matches in the CCC. That should prepare them.
“We’ve played PK games, overtime games and we’ve had comebacks from two goals down,” Sexton said. “We’re prety weathered.”
The winner takes on the Piedmont-Lexington winner on Saturday. If the Hornets beat Ashe, they’ll be at home again.
* Carson (11-11) is scheduled to face Southern Carolina champion Marvin Ridge (16-2-1) in the first round of the 3A playoffs tonight at 6 p.m. The Mavericks are the fourth-ranked team in 3A.
– Prep tennis
Salisbury’s girls tennis team will play host to Shelby in a 2A state quarterfinal today at 4 p.m.
Salisbury (20-0) and Shelby (13-0) are unbeaten. The Golden Lions reached the third round with a 5-4 win over North Stanly.Shelby’s top player is Hillary Lutz, who reached the 2A singles semifinals before falling in straight sets to Hannah Lebowitz.
The Hornets visited Shelby in last year’s playoffs and won 9-0 in the second round on their way to the 2A dual-team title.
– SAC football
Carson-Newman’s Buck Wakefield (offense), Tusculum’s Lyall Harrison (defense) and Tusculum punter John Gregory (special teams) were named SAC players of the week.
Wakefield had 303 rushing yards on 19 carries against Wingate. Harrison had two interceptions against Mars Hill.
– Overseas basketball
Terris Sifford (West Rowan) scored 26 points and had 19 rebounds in his game in Italy on Saturday.
– Boxing
Dominic DeSanto (North Rowan) knocked out Jamal Clay in 29 seconds in a recent junior welterweight fight held in Charlotte.
It was the third first-round KO for DeSanto (3-0-1).
The North Carolina Boxing Authority has declared DeSanto the winner of a CBO Jr. Welterweight title fight last December. The fight was originally ruled no contest, although DeSanto won every round.
DeSanto will receive his championship belt in about a week.
* In the amateur ranks, Salisbury’s Garrett Kennedy won a three-round unanimous decision against Wilmington’s Shane Simpson in the 10-year-old, 90-pound class.
– College soccer
Seventh-seeded Limestone upset No. 2 seed Pfeiffer 1-0 in the first round of the Conference Carolinas women’s soccer tournament on Monday.
Meredith Wingerson (Salisbury) is a starting defender for Limestone.
Pfeiffer finished 11-6-3.