From staff reports

The East Rowan girls basketball team prevailed 55-26 at Statesville behind big nights from Karleigh Wike (15 points) and Kelli Fisher (14 points). Amani Ajayi offered eight points.
“Ajayi had a really good game,” East coach Danielle Porter said. “She adds a different dimension for us with some speed and aggressiveness.”

EAST (55) — Wike 15, Fisher 14, Ajayi 8, Gullett 6, Poole 5, Lowe 2, Fry, Sides, Gobble.
STATESVILLE (26) — Parson 11, Arnette 8, Elliot 3, Hairston 3, Turner 1, Carv, Mayfield, Padgett.

E. Rowan 13 15 14 13 — 55
Statesville 6 9 9 2 — 26

East boys fall

East Rowan’s boys lost 83-48 at Statesville in Thursday’s NPC contest.
Conor Honeycutt and Donte Means scored 11 points each for the Mustangs, and Samuel Wyrick added seven.
Jaquan Warren scored 18 points to lead league-leading Statesville, and Justin Daniels added 14 points.

Wildcats roll

South Davidson’s girls stayed unbeaten in the YVC with a 58-41 win against contender West Montgomery on Thursday.
Holly Wall led the Wildcats with 22 points.
Larsen Sigmon scored her 1,000th career point.

Post 115 Junior Legion
Kannapolis American Legion Post 115 announced plans to expand its American Legion baseball program.
In addition to continuation of the Senior Legion team, a Junior Legion team will be added for the 2013 season.
Junior baseball is for players born on January 1, 1996, or later, generally players in their freshman or sophomore high school years.
Post 115 will compete in a league with as many as eight teams from the Cabarrus, Rowan and Iredell areas. Post 115 will recruit players from local high schools including Northwest Cabarrus (base school), A.L. Brown, Cox Mill and J.M. Robinson. Games will be played at Northwest Cabarrus. The team will carry 18 players on the roster. Cost to players is $140.
The coach for the new team will be Dean Mullinax, assisted by Charles Weber. Mullinax played baseball for A.L. Brown and Post 115 during the late 1980s. He has returned to baseball after a 25-year military career and has assisted at Concord and A.L. Brown and with the 2012 Post 115 team.
Weber was a standout infielder for Robinson and for Concord Post 51 and was a four-year starter at St. Andrews. Since leaving St. Andrews, he has worked with the Robinson program. Serving as athletic director for the Junior team will be Ronnie Raper, a longtime supporter of local baseball.
An informational meeting for players and parents will be held on Sunday, Feb 10, at 3 p.m., at American Legion Post 115, 123 South Main St., Kannapolis. Additional questions may be asked by emailing bwshelton@ctc.net.

Local baseball

Local baseball icon Vern Benson is in the current Sports Illustrated.
In the pictures accompanying the Stan Musial story, Benson is one of the coaches in the 1963 St. Louis Cardinals team photo.
Benson knew Musial well and was a teammate of “Stan the Man” for parts of the 1951-53 seasons.
• Sophomore Will Sapp (East Rowan) has been named as Wingate’s starting left fielder. He was a backup last season.
• Catawba has postponed today’s scheduled 6 p.m. game with Tusculum to Sunday afternoon, where it will be part of a doubleheader at Newman Park. Catawba still plans to play Pfeiffer today at Newman at 3 p.m.

Local golf

Jeremy Kilgore, a member of the Catawba men’s golf team, made a hole-in-one on Tuesday at the Country Club of Salisbury.
Kilgore used an 8-iron to ace hole No. 6, which was playing 168 yards. His partners were Alexs Lee, Zach Griffis and Tyler Rutherford.
• Forty-nine GARS members played at Crescent.
Low ‘A’ Flight player with a net of 69.54 was Dick Hatoway.
Low ‘B’ Flight player with a net of 63.47 was Gary Schenk.
Low ‘C’ Flight player with a net of 72.50 was Grady Howard with a net of 72.50.
Low ‘D’ Flight player with a net of 72.57 was Lloyd Clodfelter.

Women’s basketball

Catawba senior Elizabeth Merritt is the current SAC Player of the Week.
She paced Catawba to wins against Mars Hill and Carson-Newman by averaging 21 points and 6.5 rebounds.
• Former Catawba standout Milica Ivanovic is thriving in pro ball in Romania and is averaging 15 points per game, with a high of 40.
Ivanovic will be a member of the Serbian national team that will play in the European Championships in France this summer.

Prep wrestling

West Rowan edged South Rowan 36-33 in NPC wrestling.
Walt Waggoner, Ben Kluttz, Wood Poteat recorded pins.
Dakota Goodson won by technical fall. Jacob Wood won a major decision.
Cody Eggers won a decision. Jacob Tomlin won by forfeit.
Logan Durham, Michael Fields, Tyler Hall and Ubaldo Villegas had pins for South. Angel Ruiz, Isaac Hengel and Vance Parker won decisions.

North Hills hoops

The North Hills Men’s Junior Varsity team defeated Piedmont Community Charter, 59-52 tonight. Freshman Chris Norris led the Eagles in scoring with 20 points and Collin Lewis pitched in 12 points in the Eagles win. Tray More had 19 points in the win for Piedmont.
The North Hills Varsity Men’s team lost to Piedmont Community Charter, 75-65. Sophomore guard Leonard Murdock led the Eagles in scoring with 18 points, five rebound, three steals and three blocks. Teammates Chris Taylor and Austin Patterson each contributed nine points. Taylor also had 10 rebounds. Deshawn Graham had 21 points in the win for Piedmont.
The North Hills middle schol girls beat Covenant Classical 36-15.
Marissa Murdock led the Eagles with 10 points, Mary Kaufmann scored eight, and Dajah Glenn added five for the unbeaten Eagles.

Salis. Academy hoops

Salisbury Academy’s varsity boys beat Hickory Christian 43-38.
Marcus Corry had 12 points, nine assists, nine steals and six rebounds. Jaelen McClellan had 10 points and 12 rebounds. Carter Cook scored 10 points.
• Salisbury Academy’s varsity boys beat Triad Baptist of Kernersville 55-41.
Corry had 14 points, seven steals, nine rebounds and three blocks. Andrew Kalogeromitros scored 12 points. Mike Hughes had 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocks. Cook scored10 points. Ben Coulter had six points and six rebounds.
• Salisbury Academy’s varsity girls beat Hickory Christian 32-17.
Jordan McCall had 9 points and three steals. Juliana Anderson and Jenny Kribbs had eight points each. Madidson Day had 10 rebounds, and Anderson pulled down seven.
• Salisbury Academy’s varsity girls defeated Triad Baptist 44-15. Kribbs had 19 points and five steals. McCall scored nine points and led the team in assists. Ruth Clement and Morgan Warren had good scoring games. Clement and Samantha Pritchard led the rebounding. Anderson, Katie White, Abby Lee, Day, Ivy Overcash and Maria Capito were tough on defense for the Jaguars (16-2, 12-1).

College tennis

Wingate got the nod as the favorite in SAC men’s tennis.
Catawba was picked sixth in the preseason poll by league coaches.

YMCA hoops

This is the last chance to register for the high school boys basketball league at the East Rowan YMCA. Registration ends Saturday.
Register at the East YMCA or online at www.rowanymca.org. Contact Joe Finney at 704-279-1742 or jfinney@rowanymca.org.
• Registration continues through Feb. 3 at J.F. Hurley YMCA for a high school boys basketball league. Contact Phillip Hilliard at 704-636-0111.