From staff and wire reports
Catawba’s men’s basketball team shot 52 percent and won at North Greenville, 98-84, in a non-conference game on Thursday.
Down a point at halftime, the Indians scored 60 points in the second half.
North Greenville scored the first eight points of the second half and took a nine-point edge at 47-38. Catawba would eventually tie the game at 55-all with 12:12 left and the contest stayed tight until the final minutes.
The Indians took over during the final four minutes.
K.J. Arrington, who shot 10-for-16, came off the bench to pour in 29 points for the Indians. Jerrin Morrison had a terrific game with 20 points on 9-for-12 shooting and nine rebounds.
Jameel Taylor scored 19 points. Troy Warren had eight rebounds. Malik Constantine made his season debut and scored seven points.
Catawba (5-2) was 23-for-25 from the foul line in the second half.
Miguel Cartagena scored 19 for the Crusaders, while Daniel Burchette had 18. North Greenville shot 40.6 percent.
North Greenville (4-3) had beaten three South Atlantic Conference teams — Newberry, Brevard and Coker.
Catawba plays a SAC game on Saturday at Tusculum.

Catawba 98, N. Greenville 84

NORTH GREENVILLE (4-3)
Cartagena 19, Burchette 18, Dotson 12, Wade 12, Moore 10, Blyden 9, Howell 4.
CATAWBA (5-2)
Arrington 29, Morrison 20, Taylor 19, Brown 9, Constantine 7, Warren 6, McLaughlin 6, Ingram 2, Sealey, Childress, McGregor.

Catawba 38 60 — 98
N. Greenville 39 45 — 84

Girls hoops
Salisbury pulled away in the second half and beat Lake Norman, 51-33 on Thursday in the SHS gym.
The Hornets led at halftime, 17-16, but Maria Capito hit two 3-pointers in the third quarter so spark a nice Salisbury run.
“We got out in transition a lot better in the second half and we started getting some easy points off our defense,” Salisbury coach Lakai Brice said.
Bryanna Troutman led the Hornets (2-1) with 15 points. Tyzarea Alexander had 14, and Capito scored 11.
Freshman Aniyia Fulson scored nine.
Lake Norman fell to 0-4.
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Hickory Ridge (4-0, 1-0 SPC) stayed unbeaten by pounding Central Cabarrus, 68-32, in South Piedmont Conference play on Thursday.
Gabby Smith scored 21 for the Bulls. Kasey Rowdon had 14 for the Vikings.

Women’s hoops
Amani Ajayi (East Rowan) scored a career-high 17 points for Averett in a win at Salem on Wednesday.

Men’s hoops
Pfeiffer’s men’s basketball team blew out St. Andrews, 131-95, at Merner Gym on Thursday.
Pfeiffer (6-0) is averaging 126.3 points per game and is winning by an average margin of 39.3 points per game.
Josh Calhoun led the Falcons with 25 points. Mike Smith came off the bench to pour in 22 points.
Pfeiffer erupted for 72 second-half points.
•••
Davidson County Community College won against Central Carolina, 106-95, on Thursday.
Jeremy Ritter and Markeise Crutchfield scored 20 points each for the Storm.
•••
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Florida’s first game as a ranked team in more than two years was a success.
Dallas Moore tried to wreck it.
Chris Chiozza had 16 points and nine assists off the bench, and the 24th-ranked Gators handled North Florida 91-60 on the road Thursday despite Moore’s big night.
“I like this gym a lot,” Chiozza said. “We shoot really well in here. It’s like playing in a high school gym. I think we were all good shooters in high school.”
Florida (7-1) scored 38 points in the paint, 38 off turnovers, made 9 of 19 shots from 3-point range and finished with 51 bench points. The Gators used their best shooting performance of the season (58.5 percent) to score their most points since their last game against the Ospreys (3-6).

Prep soccer
Three Girls from Rowan county will be in Atlanta this weekend at the Generation Adidas Norcross National Soccer Tournament on a Premiere league U19 team — Mia Trexler (Carson defender), Sarah Musselwhite (Carson forward), and Lauren Weisensel (East goalkeeper)
The team consists mostly of girls from the Charlotte/Cabarrus area.
Tournament games will be played Saturday and Sunday.

8th-grade hoops
Erwin’s eighth-graders beat Knox, 51-26.
Lani Isley scored 15 points for the Eagles, Colbie and Carleigh Perry scored 12 each. Liza Simmerson had six.
Leading Knox were Jahavanik Horton with nine points, Ellen Yang with eight, and Lillie Rusher with six.
Erwin hosts Corriher-Lipe on Monday.
•••
Undefeated North Rowan beat Corriher-Lipe, 48-20, in a boys game.
Javon Smith scored 11 for the Mavericks (7-0). Kendrell Goodes and Zay Davis had six points. Nick Colson, Jarharion Graham and Carmarie McNeil scored five each, and Amir Watkins had four.
North will play at West Rowan on Monday.

Prep golf
More than 200 golfers, ages 10 to 18, played at Myrtle Beach National over Thanksgiving weekend in the George Holliday Memorial Junior Golf Tournament.
Nick Lyerly (East Rowan) tied for third at 1-under 215.

College soccer
Wingate junior midfielder Christian Szalay scored a pair of goals Thursday afternoon, leading the top-ranked Wingate University Bulldogs to a 2-0 victory over No. 10 UC San Diego in the D-II national semifinals.
The Bulldogs (18-1) will play for the national title on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Kansas City, Mo.

College volleyball
The Wingate Bulldogs take on Queens in the regional tournament at USC Aiken today at 2:30 p.m.

College softball
Allie Baker, a starter in the outfield since her freshman year at A.l. Brown, signed with Catawba.
Photo was the “Local Spotlight” earlier this week.
Baker was selected all-conference the last three years and helped turn around the program.
The Wonders captured the regular season and tournament title for the first time in program history last season.
“I’m blessed to have an opportunity to play at the next level,” Baker said.