Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

North Stanly’s men’s basketball team is off to one of the program’s best starts in recent history. The Comets reeled off eight wins in a row to start the season, then lost a home game to College Prep Leadership Academy by eight.

In the fourth and final game in the 2024 Comets Christmas Classic, North Stanly built a double-digit lead early and held off several runs by Valor Prep Academy, advancing the host team to Saturday’s semifinals with a 72-63 win.

Senior Jack Williamson poured in 28 points to lead North (9-1) while Jalen Walker added 16 points and Maddox Lowder scored 13.

Bishop Witherspoon led Valor Prep (3-7) with 23 points while Omarion Dawkins added 14 for the Owls.

North opened with a 12-0 run but the Owls cut the deficit in half by the end of the first quarter, 17-11.

Valor pulled to within a point, 17-16, 30 seconds into the second quarter, and were within four, 22-18, three minutes later. North finished the period on a 21-7 run and led at halftime, 43-25.

North started the third slowly as the Owls scored five in a row, prompting head coach George Walker to pull all five starters for two minutes.

“It’s been a problem for us all season,” Walker said. “Tonight, it reared its ugly head again. We just didn’t have the effort and the energy, the sense of urgency that we need in the third quarter.”

North eventually increased the team’s lead to 15 at the end of the third, 60-45.

In the fourth, the Owls never got closer than eight points to the Comets as North went on to the team’s ninth win in 10 games this season.

“Our pressure really wore them down and gave us another big run there in the first half,” Walker said.

“A lot of our pressure has (worn teams down) during the course of the season, late in the second and fourth quarters. Shots are short, and passes are not as crisp; (opponents) don’t go the boards, and that is when typically we make our runs.”

The Comets will take on West Stanly Saturday night at 6:30. The game will be the third this season between the two squads with North winning 81-69 wins in the two previous contests.