Welcome to the weekly sports roundup in the greater Charlotte area presented by The Sports Chief. Every Sunday, let The Chief be the one to catch you up on all the latest sports happenings in and around the Charlotte, NC area. We take a look at professional sports, as well as semi-professional, college, and high school. If you like what we’re doing, make sure you give us a follow on Twitter at @thesportschief where you’ll be notified of all our latest postings, and visit our website at www.thesportschief.com.

Professional

Carolina Panthers

The Panthers (4-8) are set to kick off today at Bank of America Stadium against the Denver Broncos who are also 4-8. It was anticipated that RB star Christian McCaffrey would make his return this week, however, he has been ruled inactive due to a quad injury. Though the season is winding down, he still believes he will return to the field before it is over. After the heartbreaking loss last week in Minnesota, Carolina has only won one game out of their last seven. The Broncos have only won two of their last seven. I believe the Panthers will get to Broncos quarterback Drew Lock today and will win a close one 23-17 at home.

Christian McCaffreyGrant Halverson/Getty Images — Christian McCaffrey
Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Charlotte Hornets

The Hornets played their pre-season opening game last night in the Spectrum Center and lost to the Toronto Raptors 111-100. The Raptors mounted a comeback after falling behind by 19 points early. There were glimpses of promising signs from this young Hornets team, such as the 22-0 run made by the Hornets in the first quarter. Charlotte’s leading scorer was Miles Bridges with 12 points, while rookie Lamelo Ball led the team in rebounds (10) and assists (4). The next game will also be against the Raptors in Charlotte, tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m.

Miles Bridges DunkJared C. Tilton/Getty Images — Miles Bridges Dunk
Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Semi-Professional

While the Checkers are still waiting for the season to begin, hopefully soon, read my latest article about when that may be HERE.

College Football

Appalachian State defeated Georgia Southern yesterday in Statesboro, Ga with the score of 34-26. After trailing by 3 touchdowns early, the Mountaineers took the lead in the 4th quarter with a Jalen Virgil 100-yd kickoff return for a touchdown and never looked back. At 8-3 (6-2 in conference), it hasn’t been the most memorable season for App State, but at least they beat Georgia Southern.

The Charlotte 49er game scheduled against Marshall on Friday was canceled, which leaves Charlotte with a 2-4 overall record at season’s end.

College Basketball

Appalachian State played regional rival Charlotte Friday night in the Queen City, and bested them with a score of 61-57. Adrian Delph was the leading scorer from the Mountaineers with 21, while Jahmir Young led all 49ers with 24 points. With this past Monday’s game getting canceled against Lagrange, App State’s season record is now 4-1 with the only loss coming against Bowling Green. Charlotte drops to 1-3, having had several games canceled already and a blowout win against South Carolina State.

The Davidson Wildcats are 3-2 so far this season, with their latest win coming against Georgia Southern on Friday night. It was a blowout win of 77-45 where Carter Collins scored 23, Hyunjung Lee scored 18, and Kellan Grady scored 17. The only two losses for the Wildcats so far have come to two very good teams by a combined three points. The Texas Longhorns beat them 78-76 in the Maui Invitational (held in Asheville, NC) and the Providence Friars beat them 63-62, also in the Maui Invitational. After losing those two tough games back to back, the Wildcats rebounded with a Maui win against UNLV, 77-73. Davidson, like usual, should be a very tough team this year.

High School

While private and prep school basketball season is underway, public school basketball is scheduled to begin next month.

The biggest high school news of late is the conference realignment, which will go into effect the fall of 2021 and last through 2025. It’s early in the process, but if proposed changes hold up, and most of them should, there will be some pretty big changes. Instead of dividing conferences solely on school enrollment size, it will now be based on athletic success over the past three years, the percentage of each school’s population that receive free/reduced lunch, along with enrollment size.

Among the most significant changes, West Charlotte and West Meck will move down to 3A, while Charlotte Catholic and Weddington will move up to 4A. Charlotte Catholic, who won three straight football championships will have a tougher road to face now, as well as Weddington who won back to back championships. Cuthbertson, Marvin Ridge, Piedmont, and Sun Valley are all moving up to 4A as well. Lake Norman and Mooresville, two 4A schools, will also be jumping conferences from the very tough I-MECK to a new conference that would include AL Brown, Cox Mill, Hickory Ridge, South Iredell, and new school West Cabarras.

Here’s a quick glimpse of the proposed conferences:

Garett

704 Sports Report