The North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s 2025 boys basketball playoffs are in full swing.

On Tuesday, 128 games were played to determine which teams will play in Friday’s second round.

Here are some of the biggest storylines from round one and an early look at the games in round two.

First Round Upsets

Before anyone gets upset about games not being upsets, of the following upsets are by *seeding* only.

• In the stunner of all stunners, 2A West 31-seed Forest Hills went on the road and ended the season of 2-seed Randleman. It is the biggest upset in any NCHSAA basketball playoff since 2012, when 16-seed High Point Central took down 1-seed Sun Valley in the first round of the boys playoffs. We have not seen a team seeded 31 or lower win a first round game in a 64-team playoff field.
• The 4A East had five teams seeded 17 or lower win in an upset: 26-seed Apex Friendship took down 7-seed Knightdale, 23-seed Panther Creek handled 10-seed New Bern, 21-seed Leesville Road ended the season of 12-seed Holly Springs, a fellow Wake County team, and 19-Millbrook/17-Heritage of the NAC won on the road.
• In the 4A West, 25-seed Reagan took down 8-seed Northern Guilford by 12 points and 18-seed South Caldwell beat 15-seed Southwest Guilford in a thriller.
• Each of the 7, 8, and 9 seeds in the 3A West lost. 26-seed Northwest Cabarrus handled 7-seed Freedom 72-54, 25-Concord beat 8-Ledford and 24-Central Davidson beat 9-Piedmont. 20-seed High Point Central took a long trip to 13-seed Franklin and left with a 67-60 win.
• Two 20-plus seeds won in the 3A East. 24-Fike took down 9-East Wake, a Quad County Conference rival. 22-Westover traveled to the beach and handled 11-seed West Brunswick.
• After losing its first two games of the season to 13-seed Washington, 20-seed Greene Central ended the Pam Pack’s season with a 64-60 win in the first round. 24-seed Seaforth went on the road to defeat 9-seed Franklin Academy 62-55.
• While the 1A East went chalk more or less, the 1A West’s 19 and 20 seeds Winston-Salem Prep and Bradford Academy took out 14-seed Andrews and 6-seed Robbinsville after long trips to the mountains.

Most Dominant Performances

• In a game that could also have qualified for the upset category, 1A West 22-seed East Wilkes thrashed 11-seed Hiwassee Dam by a score of 101-59.
• Defending 2A state champion Reidsville crushed Brevard 73-19 in the first round of the 2A West playoffs. 3-North Surry and 11-Mount Pleasant had the next most impressive performances in the region as they each won by at least 28 points.
• The 2A East was full of blowouts: 1-Farmville Central, 2-Southwest Onslow, 3-Northwood, 6-South Granville, 7-Martin County, 8-Eastern Wayne, and 12-Kinston all eviscerated their opponents. 4-seed West Bladen’s 47-33 win over Ayden-Grifton doesn’t seem too wild, but it was the 15th consecutive game that the Knights have held a team to 35 points or less.
• In the 4A East, 13-seed Clayton crushed 20-seed Pinecrest 89-48. 1-seed New Hanvoer pulled way from Rolesville, 68-47. 3-seed Sanderson crushed 30-seed Middle Creek, 69-42.
• 11-seed East Forsyth had the most dominant performance of any of the teams in the 4A West. The Eagles defeated 22-Olympic 86-60. Only one other team in the 4A West won by 20 points: 5-seed Independence over 28-seed Palisades.
• 1-Swansboro, 2-Southern Durham, 6-Seventy-First, and 10-E.E. Smith each won by at least 24 points in the 3A East.
• The top five seeds in the 3A West all looked good: 1-Ashbrook, 2-East Henderson, 3-Dudley, 4-Robinson, and 5-North Lincoln each won by at least 17 points.

Closest Games

• Cardinal Gibbons defeated Broughton in a double-overtime game. It was the fourth meeting of the season for the Cap-6 foes. With the win, Cardinal Gibbons improved to 3-1 on the season over Broughton. Broughton, through a weird tiebreaker technicality, finished ahead of Cardinal Gibbons in the final conference standings. Also in the 4A East, 9-Overhills beat 24-Cleveland 44-42 and Apex Friendship and Millbrook both won their upsets in three-point games.

• There was another double-overtime game. In the 3A West, 15-seed Oak Grove outlasted 18-seed Kings Mountain after two extra periods. The final score was 91-84.
• In their fourth meeting of the season 19-seed East Lincoln evened up the series with a close 72-70 win at 14-seed Hickory. The Mustangs led by double digits, but Hickory made a late push to make it a thrilling ending.
• The 4A West had a flurry of thrilling finishes. 17-seed Hopewell beat 16-Charlotte Catholic 53-52, 13-seed Chambers held off 20-seed Hickory Ridge 73-72, 14-seed Davie beat 19-South Meck 69-66, and 18-seed South Caldwell went to Southwest Guilford and came back with a 77-75 win. While 31-seed Marvin Ridge did not pull off the shocking upset that its county foe Forest Hills did, the Mavericks took West Forsyth to the limit and lost by just seven points. 4-seed McDowell only beat 29-seed Hough by five points.
• In the 3A East, 4-seed Person had a scary 78-74 win over 29-seed Currituck County. 13-seed Orange sruved with a 69-66 win over 20-seed C.B. Aycock.
• The best game in 2A in the first round was 17-North Stanly’s 58-54 win over 16-Walkertown.

Conference Storylines

• Known for its football parity, the Central Piedmont Conference took down all challengers, combining to finish 5-0 in the first round. Reagan had the big road win while West Forsyth, Mount Tabor, East Forsyth, and Davie took care of business at home.
• It was a rough showing for the Metro 4A. All three teams – Southwest Guilford, Grimsley, and Northern Guilford – had their seasons ended in the first playoff round.
• Leesville Road, Sanderson, and Cardinal Gibbons all won for the Cap-6. The only loss in the conference was Broughton’s – to Gibbons.
• Myers Park was the only team from the So. Meck 4A to come away with a win to start the playoffs. The other four teams all lost.
• The Catawba Shores 1A/2A Conference, which is compsoed of charter schools in the greater Charlotte area, was dominant. All five of the teams from the conference won their first round matchups: Pine Lake Prep, Lincoln Charter, and Community School of Davidson in 2A and Bradford Prep and Robbinsville in 1A.
• On the flip side, the Smoky Mountain Conference’s big schools went 0-5 and Hiwassee Dam of the Little Smoky lost to East Wilkes 101-59. The Big Smoky lost four games to charter schools – two on the road, two at home – and saw Cherokee drop a home game to Carver out of Winston-Salem.
• It was a great night for the All-American 3A/4A. Westover, Triton, Overhills, and E.E. Smith each won. The only loss was Pine Forest to 4A East 4-seed Jordan.
• The Northwest Piedmont 1A, which is mostly charter schools, had a great first round as it collectively won four games and dropped one. The only loss was Piedmont Classical’s in a road game at a top seed in Mountain Heritage.
• Mixed bag showing for the Mid-Piedmont 3A. 15-seed Oak Grove won in a thriller against 18-Kings Mountain and 24-seed Central Davidson went on the road and beat 9-seed Piedmont 51-33. However, 8-seed Ledford was upset by 25-seed Concord and 16-Asheboro lost a home game to 17-Northeast Guilford.
• 17-seed Heritage and 19-seed Millbrook of the Northern Athletic Conference went on the road and won, but 7-seed Knightdale, the regular season conference champion, lost at home to 26-seed Apex Friendship. Millbrook and Heritage have playoff runs in the blood of their program and it will be interesting if either can pull off a major upset of a top three seed on Friday. It was also a mixed bag for the SWAC. There were some nice road wins by Apex Friendship and Panther Creek, but Middle Creek and Holly Springs disappointed.
• The Mid-Carolina 1A/2A went a perfect 4-0, winning in three blowouts and getting Seaforth to win in a seven-point upset on the road.
• The Sandhills Athletic Conference dropped three of its five games, and the wins by Richmond and Southern Lee were not as comfortable as they would’ve liked.
• The Mid-State 3A finished 4-1 on Tuesday, with the only loss coming from Rockingham County to 4-seed Jay M. Robinson. The Central 3A went 3-1, with its one loss being West Carteret’s to South Central. The Yadkin Valley 1A/2A went 3-1, with only Union Academy losing. The Four Rivers 1A/2A went 4-1 with only Gates County losing.
• Reidsville is doing the heavy lifting for the Mid-State 2A. Only the Rams won on Tuesday. Walkertown, T.W. Andrews, West Stokes, and Morehead all lost their matchups. The Waccamaw 1A/2A went 1-3, with only Whiteville getting a win.

The Best Second Round Matchups

• 4A East — (13) Clayton @ (4) Jordan. Clayton has the ability to be a rare double-digit seed to make a run to the fourth round. Jordan has been strong most of the year, despite a late upset loss to Hillside. Andrew Grimes of Clayton vs. Rivers Knight of Jordan will be one of the best star vs. star matchups in the state on Friday. Clayton is coming off of one of its best performances of the season, but Jordan has one of the better defenes in 4A.
• 4A West — (13) Chambers @ (4) McDowell. Both of these teams are coming off of tight wins in the first round. Chambers has beaten some of the best teams in the state and also has lost games it should not have lost. McDowell has Rylan Parkins back, but seven of their past ten games have been close wins or losses. Which team will be its best self?
• 3A East — (13) Orange @ (4) Person. This one takes it by far. As Central Conference foes, this second round matchup will be Person and Orange’s third meeting. Person leads the season series 2-1, but each of the first three games were decided by two or less points. And both teams just had close wins in the first round.
• 3A West — (12) Huss @ (5) North Lincoln. Two of the top nine teams in the 3A West by RPI, Huss and North Lincoln will meet for the first time this season in the second round. As a feature of being in neighboring counties, they’ve played similar teams. North Lincoln is 7-2 against the common opponents while Huss is 6-3. Both teams lost to Ashbrook (Huss lost all three meetings), but Huss has a win over Statesville while North Lincoln has a loss to the Greyhounds.
• 2A East — (12) Kinston @ (5) Northeastern. A great ENC battle, the teams are ranked within the top six in the region according to MaxPreps. Kinston is 2-1 against common opponents while Northeastern is 4-1.
• 2A West — (12) Lincolnton @ (5) Maiden. One of the best sophomores in the state LJ Smith will lead Lincolnton to Maiden for part four of the teams’ 2024-25 series. After Maiden won the first matchup by 10 points, the two most recent games have been close. Maiden needed two overtimes to defeat Lincolnton 103-96 in the second game and then Lincolnton won the conference tournament matchup in a 70-69 thriller. It doesn’t get much better than Raheim Misher vs. LJ Smith.
• 1A East — (14) Bertie @ (3) Lakewood. Fresh off a conference tournament championship run and a 21-point win in the first round, Bertie is arguably the hottest team in the 1A East right now. Lakewood’s impressive wing length and post size makes for a fascinating matchup with the guard play of Bertie. Bertie’s Zy Dempsey is one of the best senior guards in North Carolina and Lakewood’s Xavier Hall might be the state’s best freshman.
• 1A West — (12) College Prep & Leadership Academy @ (5) Corvian Community. College Prep and Leadership Academy proved to be more prepared and have more leadership than N.C. Leadership Academy in the first round, but they’ll have a tough test against the community of Corvian. The Cardinals are the defending 1A runner-up, but they had a late start to the season after finishing as the 1A runner-up in football. Three of CPLA’s losses came to No. 1 overall seed Bishop McGuinness, but the Royals put up a strong fight in each, including a two-point lsos recently.