Team Speed sprinted its way to its first sectional championship in school history as the run-and-gun Riverside Knights blew past Weldon 72-46 on Friday to advance to the East Regional semifinal round of the NCHSAA 1-A playoffs.
The top-seeded Knights won their 15th straight game, upping their record to 28-1 as they downed the fifth-seeded Chargers (22-5) and advanced to face No. 2 River Mill Academy (26-3) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Crown Arena in Fayetteville.
“Throughout the whole season this is what we were going for, this is what we were fighting for and this was the plan all along,” Riverside’s first-year coach Kirby Maness said.
Point guard Jalyn Brown led a host of Knights scorers as she racked up 15 points, while D’asya Wilson added 12. Defensive ace Jo’neka Brown continued to have a solid postseason on both ends of the court as she tallied 10 points.
Overall, Riverside had a total of 12 players produce points in the romp.
As the postseason goes on the Knights seem to get more and more contributors and that’s a trend Maness hopes continues.
“In our last game we had 39 points from three bench players,” Maness said. “In the last eight games we’ve had six different people that we’ve nominated our Player of the Game.”
On Friday it was another team effort as Riverside’s speedy attack neutralized Weldon’s big frontcourt and allowed the Knights to take a 24-9 lead in the first quarter.
“It’s always good for us to start fast. It gives us a lot of confidence and then the other team has to use a lot of energy trying to catch up for the rest of the game,” Maness said. “We did a good job of attacking and shot the ball really well. We made a lot of wide open threes. That was big for us.”
The Knights press was widely effective and fueled their attack as the Chargers managed only seven points in the second while Riverside tallied 21 to take a commanding 45-16 lead at halftime.

Weldon    9    7    21    9    —    46
Riverside    24    21    12    15    —    72
Chargers (46)
Eason 9, Whitaker 2, Robinson 5, Shiquanda 17, Brown 6, Dailey 2, Edwards 3. No. 21 1.
Knights (72)
Jalyn Brown 15, Moore 7, D’asya Wilson 12, Burnett 6, Alexander 3, Cooper 4, Jo’neka Brown 10, Gaddy 3, Slade 2, Rodgers 8, Williams 2, Simpson 2.