There were a couple of important Yadkin Valley Conference basketball matchups this past week that should go a long way in determining the regular season championships in both the girls’ and boys’ races.

In the girls’ battle for the regular season crown, first place and conference unbeaten South Davidson visited second place West Montgomery, who had only one loss in league play.

In the first meeting in Denton, the Lady Wildcats needed a last-second bucket to beat the Lady Warriors. This time South Davidson didn’t need any last-second heroics as it jumped out front early and stayed there for a 56-41 victory.

The Wildcats are 11-0 as they head into the final two weeks of the regular season.

The Warriors’ second conference loss ties them with North Rowan for second place, with both teams carrying a pair of losses. West won the first meeting between the two teams and the rematch for second place is scheduled at West Feb.12.

In the battle of the top-two boys’ teams second place Albemarle visited conference leader North Rowan.

The host Cavaliers won the first meeting in Albemarle’s first game of the season back in December. Since then, the Bulldogs had run off 13 straight victories.

Both teams are ranked in the NCPreps.com state 1-A polls with the Cavaliers sitting in the four spot and Albemarle ranked eighth.

The Bulldogs came out slow, and North Rowan won 65-35. North Rowan is now 12-0 in conference play while the Bulldogs fall to 9-2.

The North Moore boys’ team had a good win Friday when it defeated third place West Montgomery 62-56, tightening the race for third. The Mustangs and East Montgomery are sporting 7-5 conference records while West is at 7-4.

South Stanly is not out of the picture for third place with a 6-6 league record.

Chatham Central picked up a big win earlier in the week with a 77-65 victory at West Montgomery. Junior Zack Burke paced the Bears, scoring 36 points and pulling down 16 rebounds. Burke is tied with North Rowan’s Oshon West for the individual scoring title with both players averaging 17.6 points per game.

Burke is also the conference’s leading rebounder with 10.3 boards a contest. He is the only boy player in the league averaging a double-double.

North Moore’s Quashan Davis is third in the scoring race, averaging 16.2 points per game while South Stanly’s Michard Richardson is second with 15.6 points per contest. Davis leads the league in three-point shooting, having made 39 treys so far this season. West Montgomery’s Cody McKenzie is second with 26 three-pointers.

In the girls’ standings behind South Davidson, West Montgomery and North Rowan is Chatham Central with a 6-5 record followed by North Moore at 6-6 and Albemarle 4-6.

East Montgomery, Gray Stone and South Stanly are tied with 2-10 conference marks.

The three teams split with each other during the season, and unless one of the teams pulls an upset, there will be some action at the end-of-season conference meeting to determine the tournament seeding.

Since the conference has nine teams, the last place team doesn’t qualify for the league tourney, scheduled to start Feb. 18.

North Moore senior Jalisa Davis continues to lead the league in scoring with 24.6 points per game. Davis also leads the conference with 53 three-pointers.

Her closest competitor in three-point scoring is Albemarle freshman Kyleigh McLendon with 39 treys. Davis’ scoring average is two points higher than Albemarle junior Akela Branch, averaging 22.6 points.

Branch is second in the conference in rebounding with 14.9 per game, while West Montgomery’s Latoya Cuthrell pulls down 15.8 per game.

North Moore has a couple of big games this week, entertaining South Davidson Wednesday and traveling to East Montgomery Friday with a lot riding on the outcome of the boys’ game.

The girls’ games are scheduled to start at 6 p.m., followed by the boys’ contests.