STANLY COUNTY — With conference tournaments out of the way, the postseason has continued for five Stanly County varsity basketball teams within the 2025 North Carolina High School Athletic Association state playoffs.
Two boys’ teams — the 16th-seeded North Stanly Comets (22-6) and 10th-seeded South Stanly Rowdy Rebel Bulls (17-8) — joined the 29th-seeded Comets (13-13), 27th-seeded West Stanly Colts (14-12), and third-seeded Albemarle Bulldogs (23-4) girls teams in receiving a bid to play in the first round of the NCHSAA tournament.
Albemarle and South Stanly were seeded to their respective 1A brackets, while West Stanly and North Stanly are the county’s two 2A representatives.
Three of the five local squads advanced past their first-round opponents on Tuesday night.
The Comet boys defeated No. 17 Walkertown (16-10) with a 58-54 tally in New London; the team will now travel to face No. 1 seed Reidsville (26-0) on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Comet girls were defeated by No. 4 T.W. Andrews (23-1) in a 73-20 road loss.
Over in Norwood, the South Stanly boys hosted No. 23 Avery County (14-11), knocking off the Vikings (14-12) in a 70-67 finish; the Bulls are set to travel to No. 7 Eastern Randolph (17-8) for second-round action.
The Colt girls faced a familiar Rocky River Conference opponent in No. 6 Forest Hills (24-3) on the road — falling short in a 76-52 final — while the Albemarle girls’ squad hosted No. 30 Bessemer City (14-13).
After the Bulldogs’ blowout 72-21 victory, they will now host No. 14 Hiwassee Dam (18-6).
Out of the five Stanly teams to make the playoffs, only one of them is coming off a conference championship victory — the Bulldog girls knocked off Union Academy (22-2) at home in a 61-54 heavyweight fight for the Yadkin Valley Conference crown on Feb. 21.
As the highest-seeded local team in the state playoffs, Albemarle has been on a roll as of late, winning 13 games in a row after a loss to Union Academy back on Jan. 9. The Bulldogs went on to win 18 of their next 20 matchups after losing two of their first six games this season.
Their seven-point victory over the Cardinals in the YVC Tournament finale gave Albemarle both a conference championship and a revenge win over the second-ranked team in the YVC.
Led by star point guard and Winston Salem State University signee Amari Baldwin, Albemarle is looking to progress in the tournament like it did last season but instead advance past a fourth-round hurdle the team hit in the previous tournament; Baldwin broke the all-time women’s basketball county points record last month.
The second round of playoff action is set for Friday night, followed by a third round on Tuesday and a fourth round next Friday. The dates for the Final Four regionals and state championships will be announced at a later date.