WILLIAMSTON — It’s quickly becoming apparent that Northside center Edrice “Bam” Adebayo will do whatever it takes to advance his team deeper in the playoffs, no matter the competition. On Tuesday, the 6-foot-9 standout’s 42 points and 26 boards propelled the Panthers to a 77-62 win over Riverside in the third round of the NCHSAA 1-A state tournament.

“He cleans up the glass, blocks shots, makes baskets when we need them,” said head coach Mike Proctor. “He’s just a special player who comes around one in a lifetime if you’re lucky to be in that lifetime. I’ve been coaching 30 years and have never seen it.”

Northside, which struggled to hit its free throws against Gates County on Monday, shot an improved 68 percent from the charity stripe and kept the Two Rivers Conference champions off the boards for most of the contest — two areas that ultimately were the difference down the stretch. Sophomore Markel Freeman, Riverside’s tallest asset at 6-foot-4, averaging eight points and nearly 11 rebounds a game this season, was no match for North Carolina’s top talent. Freeman was limited to nine points and six boards, while his counterpart, junior forward Ben Cox, followed an eight-point first quarter by scoring just two points through the final 24 minutes.

But head coach Bobby Williams, unlike Northside, has leaned on a balanced offensive attack en route to an impressive 19-5 record this season. With Adebayo negating the Knights’ bigs, the game fell into the hands of the Riverside backcourt — seniors Detarian Spruill and Ziree Rodgers, who entered the contest as his team’s leading offensive option.

Northside’s guards keyed in on Rodgers and pressured seemingly every shot he attempted. The Riverside floor leader soon found himself in early foul trouble and would eventually foul out just six seconds into the fourth quarter. Spruill desperately tried to put to the offense on his back, finding his way to the rim and hitting acrobatic shots, contested and uncontested. He finished with a season-high 28 points, but that hardly put a dent in the Panthers’ high-octane offense.

“I felt like early we were letting them get to the paint too much,” Proctor said. “We talked at halftime that we didn’t feel like they were a great shooting team, so we wanted to keep them out of the inside. We weren’t doing that early. Then we came in the third quarter and got a couple charges, a couple of jump balls. I think we kept them out of the paint a lot better. I thought our defense overall was pretty good tonight.”

Having briefly worked on foul shooting after school while discussing how to attack Riverside, the Panthers found themselves in the bonus very early in the fourth quarter and iced the game from the line, locking up their place in the next round.

Junior Ikeem Greene finished with 10 points and five assists, while senior Reggie Slade scored 13 points, 11 of which were in the second quarter. Adebayo’s 42 points marks his second-highest point total this season.

“Oh my gosh he’s playing so much better this year than last year. It’s not even funny,” Proctor said of Adebayo. “He’s gotten so much better. He can hit the mid-range jumper too and he hasn’t even brought that out yet. His leadership is coming around. I’m just privileged to have the opportunity to coach him.”

The win advances the Panthers to the sectional final, where they will face the winner of the No. 2-seeded Voyager Academy and No. 7-seeded Whiteville in Fayetteville on Friday at 4 p.m.

“We live to play another one, but it’s going to be tough now. Four teams left in the East. Maybe we’ll be a hard out for somebody,” Proctor said.