Is 100th battle their destiny?

Ya know how head coaches are, so it's pretty much guaranteed the interest level of Beth Queen and Jonathan Tharpe about it won't last beyond this first paragraph.

Not yet anyway.

But if things fall into place tonight and Bandys (25-3) wins at Canton Pisgah (21-6) to earn its 15th West Regional appearance and Newton-Conover (26-3) handles visiting North Surry (20-6) to earn its 10th, the Trojans and Red Devils could again be on a collision course.

First up, of course, is winning tonight's 7 p.m. sectional championship games. And that won't be easy, especially for Bandys after a long bus ride to Canton.

But if the double win gets done, sending both schools to the West Regionals in Greensboro next week, the Trojans and Red Devils can't meet in the first round there (North Carolina High School Athletic Association rule).

That sets the stage, if all the "ifs" disappear, for a potential Trojans-Red Devils regional title game on March 6 at noon in Greensboro.

It would be the 100th matchup in a memory-filled series that, despite Bandys' 62-37 lead that includes winning the first 26 games, is special for both communities.

Tharpe's Red Devils clearly have the upper hand in the series right now. They're 3-0 against the Trojans this year – winning 44-39 at Bandys, 56-48 at Newton-Conover and 50-34 at Catawba Valley Community College in the Catawba Valley Athletic 2A tournament title game – and have won 12 of the last 15 matchups.

But these are, at least from a historical standpoint, dangerous waters for any team that faces having to beat another four times in one year.

And no one knows that sort of thing better than the Red Devils.

The Bandys versus Newton-Conover series went to a new level nearly 25 years ago when the teams played nine times in just two seasons.

In 1986-87, Newton-Conover's 29-0 record as it approached Game No. 3 with Bandys in the West 2A Regional final included 51-46 and 75-60 victories.

But the Trojans won 63-55 at Lenoir-Rhyne, then handled Clinton 52-45 in Chapel Hill to come home with a state 2A title.

The next year, when the NCHSAA took a temporary leave of common sense by adding a wacky subregional, Bandys and Newton-Conover met six times.

Bandys won twice, then the Red Devils won 51-50 at Newton-Conover.

Next up was the old Southern District 7 2A tournament final, where Bandys won 65-56 at L-R.

Then came a sectional title game at Mars Hill College, won 60-47 by the Trojans.

And that's where the "what-are-they-doing?" game came into play.

The NCHSAA came up with this one-year plan to have teams that lost in sectional title games play for a subregional title, then join four sectional champs in an eight-team pool to determine the West Final Four.

Mount Airy, Bandys, Albemarle and Southwestern Randolph each won three games and a sectional championship.

But in the subregional setup, all four had to win their way into the regional… well, again.

After Bandys beat North Stokes and the Red Devils beat Albemarle to get to the Final Four, the Trojans beat Southwestern Randolph and the Red Devils beat Mount Airy in first-round games.

Bandys (30-1) then faced Newton-Conover (27-4) at L-R for Game No. 6, with Bandys winning 55-47 to head back to Chapel Hill.

The Trojans beat Clinton again in Chapel Hill to collect back-to-back state 2A titles.

It still ranks as one of the weirdest situations in high school basketball history in this state, because the opportunity existed for a team that has already been beaten in the postseason to play its way back through and be a state champion.

Huh? They certainly don't do it that way in college basketball, where the ya-just-aint-quite-good-enough teams go where they belong, the NIT.

By the way, if the Trojans and Red Devils do meet March 6 in Greensboro, it will be the fourth time they've played four or more times in a season.

And the record in those games, fittingly, speaks volumes about what kind of series this has become – 17 games with nine Bandys wins and eight Newton-Conover wins.

Record Sports Editor Chris Hobbs is covering area prep basketball for the 34th straight season. Reach him at chobbs@hickoryrecord.com.