By Mike London
Salisbury Post
WINSTON-SALEM — Reidsville (23-1) has won 83 of its last 84 boys basketball games, might have the nation’s quickest high school guard in Dionte Neal, has three All-District players and owns a national ranking, so it’s favored to beat Salisbury (23-7) one more time on Friday.
The teams are competing for the 4A state championship at Wake Forest’s Lawrence Joel Coliseum. Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m.
4A is a new concept for both programs, as they became perennial opponents/rivals in 2A. One of the side effects of the NCHSAA’s move to eight classifications this season was Reidsville winding up in the East half of the bracket. Salisbury and Reidsville have been staging their annual confrontations deep in the West bracket. With Reidsville representing the East, this is the first meeting that will be for a state championship.
Salisbury has one heck of a seven-loss team. Two losses were on the home floor of Carson, a really good 5A and two losses were to Robinson, an even better 5A that reached the West Region final.
The Hornets lost in January to Ben Smith (23-6), a regional finalist in 6A. They lost back in December to Lincolnton (19-10) and Dudley (15-12), but the Hornets have improved a lot, especially on the defensive end, since then.
After beating Salisbury in the fourth round in 2023, Reidsville made it to the state championship game, but lost it. After beating the Hornets in a regional final in 2024, Reidsville won the state. The Rams beat the Hornets in a fourth-rounder in 2025 and repeated as state champs.
Reidsville had won 63 straight games when it fell to Washington this season in a Christmas tournament barnburner in Raleigh. Reidsville avenged that loss, 59-58, in the recent 4A East regional championship game.
Salisbury has won a pretty incredible number of NCHSAA state championships — 49 titles in 13 different sports — but only one NCHSAA banner was for boys basketball. It should also be noted that Salisbury (known as Boyden until 1971) won three straight boys basketball titles in the old Western North Carolina High School Activities Association.
In 1986-87, Sam Gealy coached the Hornets to a 30-2 season. They won the conference, won the conference tournament, won the sectional, won the regional and whipped Farmville Central 63-45 for the 2A state championship. Fred Campbell scored 22 points and Bryan Withers had 20 in the championship game. They were two of Salisbury’s three D-I recruits.
The Salisbury-Reidsville basketball history really starts with the 2019-20 season when the programs collided in a MLK holiday tournament in Greensboro. Salisbury had a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t hold it. Breon Pass scored 50 … yes, 50 — as the Rams pulled out a 92-90 victory.
When the Rams came to Salisbury for a first-round playoff game in 2022, Reidsville was a 28 seed with as many losses as wins, but still made it a scrap. The Hornets won 64-58 mostly because the late Cam Stout made five 3-pointers and scored 23 points. Juke Harris had 16.
Neal was a freshman when Salisbury played at Reidsville and lost 59-50 in a fourth-rounder in 2023. Reidsville outscored the Hornets 22-7 in the third quarter to take charge of that one. That run was fueled by Neal, who scored more than half of his team’s points. Harris scored 21 for the Hornets. That would turn out to be the final game for Withers as Salisbury’s head coach.
Albert Perkins was hired to replace him. Perkins has posted records of 27-4, 26-4 and 23-7.
The Hornets reached the regional final in Winston-Salem in 2023-24, Perkins’ first season. That’s the season Harris averaged 31.6 points per game. The No. 2 scorer was sophomore Braylon Taylor. Reidsville beat the Hornets 76-72 despite 30 points by Harris and 17 by Bryce Dalton. That was quite a game with 12 ties and six lead changes. The Hornets had their chances and held Neal to 16, but Kendre Harrison had 19 points and 19 rebounds.
Salisbury’s 2024-25 season ended, 77-69, in Reidsville’s gym in the fourth round despite 27 points by Taylor and 21 by Myles Smith. Neal scored 30 for Reidsville and Johnniyus Sharpe scored 20. While it was a single-digit final, Reidsville controlled the game and led from wire to wire.
Sharpe is gone now, as is Harrison, who graduated early and headed to Oregon. He probably has a future as an NFL tight end.
But Neal is a senior now. He’s still in a Reidsville uniform and he hasn’t lost any quickness or speed. Actually, he’s probably added some.
Neal de-committed from UNC Greensboro in recent days — a coaching change was announced there — and has reopened his recruitment for football and basketball.
Neal was Player of the Year for his district. Jason Ross, district coach of the year, has found some help for Neal. Paul Cauthen Jr. is quite a player. A sophomore forward who transferred from Statesville, Cauthen was first team all-district. With Neal ailing with the flu in the regional final against Washington, Cauthen carried the Rams with 27 points.
Reidsville also has Mariel Ingram, who has been in the program for a while, paying dues, and blossomed into a player this year. He was third team all-district. Cauthen and Neal command so much defensive attention that Ingram and other Rams get some easy hoops.
Fans are probably familiar with Salisbury’s lineup by now. The Hornets aren’t big, but they will be bigger than Reidsville for the first time in a long time.
Taylor is the senior leader now, a 6-foot-2 guard headed to Catawba. He gets the Hornets about 18 points per game. Jon Ross, a senior forward making a comeback after missing 1.5 seasons, makes a lot of 3s and scores 13 per game. Blake Smith, a 6-foot-4 dunking machine in the post, leads the rebounding and shot-blocking and averages about 12 points. Ross Perkins, the coach’s son and the freshman guard who made the remarkable shot from half-court that lifted the Hornets into this championship game, also gets a dozen points per game.
Those four provide double figures almost every time they take the floor. Darius Greene, a defensive-minded forward who has made some big 3s, rounds out the starting five. Jayden Jones and Jaylin Johnson are fly-around athletes off the bench, while Tony Pagan is a big body who could be critical if Smith gets in foul trouble.
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