By James W. Houston

Special to The Pilot

As the Yadkin Valley Conference basketball season reaches its midway point, both the boys' and girls' standings are starting to take shape.

The South Davidson girls' team picked up a pair of victories last week with one being an important showdown at Chatham Central. The host Lady Bears tied the Lady Wildcats last year for the regular season title. South Davidson won easily over Chatham Central by a 55-32 score Tuesday. The Wildcats improved their league record to 8-0 (11-2 overall) with a 74-29 win over South Stanly Friday.

In the boys' race, defending champion North Rowan stayed atop of the conference with a pair of victories over South Stanly and West Montgomery, who was tied for second place before Friday's meeting. The Cavaliers toppled South Stanly by a 103-51 score and the Warriors by a convincing 90-49 margin. North Rowan moves its league mark to 8-0 and 12-3 overall.

The West Montgomery girls' team had an important showdown at North Rowan, with both teams having only one conference loss. The Lady Warriors took sole possession of second place with a 71-59 victory. West is currently 6-1 (6-3) in conference action while the Lady Cavaliers dropped to 6-2 (6-6).

North Moore had a couple of big wins to stay in the upper half of the standings with home victories over East Montgomery and Gray Stone. The Lady Mustangs defeated the Lady Eagles 65-43 Tuesday and Gray Stone 67-41 Friday.

North Moore is now 4-3 in conference action (9-5), tied with Chatham Central (4-3YVC, 5-8 overall). Albemarle stands alone in sixth place, picking up their second conference win of the season by a 45-34 score over Gray Stone. Gray Stone, South Stanly and East Montgomery all have only one victory each, with the Eagles and Gray Stone having seven conference losses and South Stanly six losses.

Albemarle continues to stay within striking distance of North Rowan in the boys' race with a 6-1 conference record and 10-1 overall. The Bulldogs notched a pair of wins last week over Gray Stone (93-26) and Chatham Central (59-45).

With a thrilling 58-57 victory over East Montgomery Tuesday, followed by an 87-43 thrashing of Gray Stone Friday, the Mustangs are a game behind third place West Montgomery (5-2, 6-6). North Moore is now 4-3 in league play and 7-7 overall.

South Stanly is also 4-3 (5-8), but the Mustangs hold the tiebreaker, having defeated the Rebel Bulls 73-68 earlier in the season.

East Montgomery is currently in sixth place with a 3-4 mark (6-8), one game ahead of Chatham Central with a 2-5 (3-9) conference mark. South Davidson is in eighth place with a 1-7 (1-12) record, and Gray Stone is still searching for their first win of the season (0-8, 0-13).

Most of the teams were off until tonight (Friday), as most of the schools held exams this week.

An important showdown takes place tonight when Albemarle travels to North Rowan with a potential tie for first place in the boys' standing riding on the outcome. Other boys' action Friday includes North Moore at South Stanly with the winner moving into fourth place alone, East Montgomery at Gray Stone and South Davidson at West Montgomery, where the Warriors could tie the Wildcats for first place in the girls' standings with a victory. Chatham Central has the night off in conference action.

The girls' games start at 6 p.m., followed by the boys' games.