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A strong fourth-quarter effort by the Albemarle women’s basketball team lifted the Bulldogs to a 61-54 win versus Union Academy in the finals of the 2025 Yadkin Valley Conference Tournament.

Albemarle (22-4) earned a three-peat in the tournament for the first time since 1989 and gave the Bulldogs the top YVC 1A seed for the state playoffs, which kick off Tuesday at home at 6 p.m. With the No. 3 seed, Albemarle will host No. 30 Bessemer City (14-12).

In Friday’s win versus the Cardinals, Amari Baldwin led Albemarle with 24 points while Jasmine Brown added 14, eight in the fourth quarter.

Albemarle led 17-12 after one quarter and 33-29 at halftime but Union Academy (21-2) rallied to lead after three periods of play, 44-42.

The Bulldogs opened the fourth with a 16-2 run over the first four minutes, getting six points from Brown and five from Karrington Baldwin.

“I think we had conditioned well,” Albemarle head coach Eric Davis said regarding the run. “We haven’t had a full practice in a week and a half with injuries and kids sitting.”

Regarding the win, Davis said it set up the Bulldogs for a top-three seed, which the team did get.

“Union Academy’s going to be a Sweet 16 team, maybe even further than that…it was a good game. It battle tested us, tested our control. Anytime you play a really good team like that, you find out what you need to get better at.”