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The varsity basketball teams of West Stanly both earned wins Wednesday night to advance to Friday’s Rocky River Conference tournament finals.

Women’s Basketball

The Colts, seeded second in the bracket, received a bye in the first round and took on No. 6 Montgomery Central Wednesday, who previously had upset third-seed Central Academy in a first-round game, 44-42.

West jumped out to to an early lead and went on to a 37-34 win over the Timberwolves.

Carmen Bishop led the Colts (16-9) with 11 points, eight coming in a low-scoring second half. Kailey Furr added eight points, all in the first half, for West.

Carmen Calloway was top scorer for the Timberwolves (5-20) with 10 points.

West will take on top-seed Forest Hills (16-7) Friday at 6 p.m. at Pfeiffer University in the RRC finals, weather permitting. The Jackets advanced with a win over No. 4 seed Anson, 60-46. This season, Forest Hills won both previous matchups with the Colts, 51-42 in Marshville and 49-33 at Red Cross.

MC 6 8 15 5 34
WS 16 9 8 4 37

Men’s Basketball

Playing with out the team’s second-leading scorer Wednesday, the No. 3 seeded Colts avenged two earlier narrow defeats to No. 2 Anson County with a 62-51 victory, advancing West into Friday’s tournament finals.

Austin Medlin led West (16-10) with 27 points, adding six rebounds and four assists, while Ethan Connor put together a strong double-double effort scoring 18 points and pulling down 21 boards.

“I could not be prouder of our effort tonight. We didn’t play perfect, but we played hard and made better decisions down the stretch when we needed to,” West head coach John Thompson said.

“Austin and Ethan carried us offensively and Ethan was a complete beast on the boards. Collectively we played some of our best defense of the year, especially Brack Morgan who was playing tough through an ankle injury.”

The Colts will face the undefeated top seed in the RRC, Forest Hills (24-0) in the finals. The Jackets topped fourth-seed Mount Pleasant 75-49 in the other semifinal matchup Wednesday.