HUNTERSVILLE Team Charlotte is king of North Carolina's AAU basketball mountain.

The second-year program clinched its first 17-under state championship Sunday with a 75-65 win against Garner Road. Team Charlotte led from the opening tap at Hopewell High and weathered a determined second-half rally to pull away in the fourth quarter.

"We're doing big things and other teams are going to start noticing us," said guard L.C. Cooks, who led Team Charlotte with 11 of his team-high 21 points in the fourth. "We've just got to keep taking it to teams and keep playing hard."

Cooks, who plays high school ball at Central Cabarrus, did his part by scoring Team Charlotte's first six points in the fourth for a 63-53 advantage. After T.J. Warren's basket cut Garner Road's deficit to 66-60 with 2 minutes, 47 seconds left, Kendall Knor (11 points) hit a 3-pointer to slam the door shut. Four Team Charlotte players broke double-digits, with guard Jerran Foster and center Montarius Hall going for 18 and 14 points respectively.

"It was a great weekend," Team Charlotte coach Kevin Ligon said. "We were missing two post players, we were a little short, but the guys played well together. Our guard play was outstanding."

Garner Road center T.J. Warren, a standout at Raleigh Word of God, led all scorers with 30 points.

Team Charlotte ran multiple defenders at Warren while swarming the passing lane to force perimeter shots. Terry Henderson was the only other Garner Road player in double figures with 10 points.

Team Charlotte also used its speed in transition off defensive rebounds or turnovers, forcing Garner Road out of its more deliberate pace. Team Charlotte forced Garner Road to find offense aside from Warren, and successfully challenged them, leading by as many as 15 points in the first half.

"We didn't execute like we normally do," Garner Road coach Duane West said. "We normally run our sets and every time we ran our sets we got what we wanted, but they wanted to get into an up-and-down and they would come at us and we'd try to come back instead of staying disciplined."

Team Charlotte maintained its discipline late in the game by spreading the floor and finding Hall for a couple of dunks and Cooks for the final basket to secure the win.

"It's how we work as a team," Cooks said. "One night one player might have a good game; the next night another player will have a good game."

TEAM CHARLOTTE 75: L.C. Cooks 21, Jerran Foster 18, Montarius Hall 14, Kendall Knor 11, Gray 7, Eddie 4.

GARNER ROAD 65: T.J. Warren 30, Terry Henderson 10, Tate 8, Rahman 6, Wilson 5, Dance 2, Ingram 2, Moore 2.