High school boys basketball: Hornets wipe out NW Cabarrus in SPC opener
Published 1:48 pm Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Staff report
SALISBURY — Salisbury’s boys basketball team had Bobby Phillips and Marvin Dixon in the lineup the last time it played a South Piedmont Conference game.
That was in the 1992-93 season, a 15-9 group of Hornets coached by Sam Gealy that lost quite a few players at the semester break but managed to go 11-5 for third place in SPC play.
The Hornets announced their return to the SPC with some authority on Tuesday by blowing out Northwest Cabarrus 71-38.
Braylon Taylor scored 19 to lead the Hornets, right on his average. He boosted his career points total to 934. Freshman Royce Perkins scored 12 and was in double figures for the fifth straight game. Jon Ross had 11, his fifth straight game in double digits. Jayden Jones (10) and Jourdin White (9) contributed season highs.
Taylor made two 3-pointers at the outset to give the Hornets a 6-2 lead, but the Trojans came back and trailed only 15-14 after a quarter.
Salisbury (5-0, 1-0) got rolling early in the second quarter with a 9-0 burst for a 24-14 lead. Ross made two 3-pointers in the quarter.
By halftime, the Hornets were up 34-20 and they stayed in control in the second half. They outscored NWC 37-19 after halftime.
“Our second half was much better than the first,” SHS head coach Albert Perkins said.
Northwest (1-4, 0-1) still has high-scoring guard Aiden Rochevot but graduated an awful lot from last season’s stout team.
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There was a delay prior to the game after a massive spill on the NWC bench. Someone knocked over a cooler full of ice and water.
NW Cabarrus 14 6 12 7 — 39
Salisbury 15 19 17 20 — 71
SALISBURY — Taylor 19, Perkins 12, Ross 11, Jones 10, White 9, Smith 7, Greene 3.