FAYETTEVILLE — Finishing third in the Coastal Plains Conference behind Pamlico County and the top-seeded East Carteret, the Northside Panthers were hardly the talk of the bracket entering the NCHSAA 1-A state playoffs.

Yes, Pinetown was home to one of the best players in North Carolina, Edrice “Bam” Adebayo, and the 17-4 record was notable, but one man carrying a team through even the early rounds of the playoffs seemed unlikely, especially considering Northside, a 14 seed, would have to face two conference champions just to get to the sectional final — No. 3-seeded Gates County and the No. 6-seeded Riverside Knights.

But here the Panthers are, still standing, having effortlessly run over three formidable teams en route to the section final, which will take place tomorrow at 4 p.m. at the Crown Arena in Fayetteville.

After cruising past Northampton County in Round 1 at home, Adebayo’s 38 points annulled what was an otherwise horrendous night at the charity stripe for the Panthers, who left Gatesville with a fairly relaxed 10-point, second-round win over Gates County.

Northside had to leave its free throw shooting woes behind though and prepare for Riverside on Tuesday.

“After school (on Tuesday) we met … it’s been a tough week,” said head coach Mike Proctor. “We still met after school, went into the gym and shot foul shots. We didn’t do a whole lot except talk about some of the things Riverside would do, but we shot a lot of foul shots and maybe it paid off.”

Shooting nearly 70 percent from the line, a huge improvement from Monday, the Panthers guards were finally able to get into a rhythm to help their big man, who finished with 42 points and 26 rebounds in front of East Carolina head coach Jeff Lebo.

Now, Northside will face Voyager Academy, a team boasting a 29-2 record, a North Central Atlantic Conference championship and Jay Huff — a lengthy four-star power forward measuring in at 6-foot-10, 182 pounds. Huff, a junior who was visited by Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski on Tuesday, according to multiple reports, leads his team in scoring (16.3 PPG) and rebounding (8.1 RPG).

In terms of raw talent, based on optics and what’s on paper, Adebayo should have the upper hand in the one-on-one matchup down low, but it’s Voyager’s supporting cast that will likely give the Panthers problems down the stretch.

Forward Christopher Sause comes in averaging 15.2 points and six rebounds per game, numbers that exceed any of Northside’s secondary scoring options, while guards Chance Greene and Collin Faucette center their game on distributing the basketball to the bigs and capitalizing from the perimeter.

Reggie Slade and Ikeem Greene both finished in double-digit scoring Tuesday night at Riverside and head coach Mike Proctor is relying on that duo to support Adebayo accordingly.

“I told Reggie, ‘You can play, but just have faith in yourself,’” Proctor said. “Sometimes he gets down on himself, but he had faith and did a good job for us (on Tuesday).”

Consistent guard play was critical for the Panthers during their regular season campaign and climb to a 20-4 record, barreling through one of the toughest 1-A conferences in North Carolina. However, unfortunately for Northside, a win against Voyager on Friday will more than likely setup a rematch with the Coastal Plains Conference champions, the No. 1-seeded East Carteret Mariners, who enter their sectional matchup against Weldon with a 25-2 record and the most feared (and productive) backcourt in 1-A.