Richland Northeast came away with a region basketball sweep for the first time in three years on Tuesday, scoring boys and girls varsity wins at Lugoff-Elgin.

The major part of the story was the 44-29 triumph in the opener by the long-suffering Cavaliers girls team. In fact, the win snapped a 32-game region losing streak. It was the first conference win by RNE since a 31-27 success against White Knoll on Jan. 19, 2010.

“Give it a couple of years, but we’re going to get things turned around here,” said Precious Caldwell, the former Eau Claire coach who is in the first year of a challenging rebuilding project at RNE, during the Chick-fil-A Classic.

Sheress Rose led the way to the notable win with 23 points. The Cavalier girls record is now 3-11, 1-1.

The RNE boys, meanwhile, tuned up from Friday’s showdown against No. 1 Irmo with a 56-46 win over the Demons behind Quiron Cooke’s 25 points. The Cavaliers (13-3, 2-0) have won five in a row since going 1-2 at the Chick-fil-A Classic.