No. 3 North Meck runs past Mount Tabor, sets up regional semifinal with Myers Park
The North Meck Vikings used a dominant third quarter to pull away from a game Mount Tabor team en route to a 63-52 home victory Saturday night.
The win gave the Vikings an N.C. 4A sectional championship and a berth in Tuesday’s regional semifinals with Mecklenburg County rival Myers Park.
Both teams struggled to score in the first quarter with Mount Tabor holding a 7-6 lead. In the second, the game stayed tight. North Meck (26-4) led by one, 20-19, with a minute to play, but an Isaiah Evans basket with 56 seconds left and a 3-pointer with five seconds left gave the Vikings a 25-19 lead at the break.
The third quarter was all North Meck, which held Mount Tabor (20-9) to just one field goal the entire quarter. A Jordan Crawford basket and two free throws in the final minute gave North Meck a 40-23 lead heading to the fourth.
“We talked a lot about staying locked in (on defense),” North Meck coach Duane Lewis said. “Sometimes with kids they can lose focus but I thought we did a good job stayed focused and made them work hard to get shots off.”
North Meck led 49-30 with just over five minutes left but Mount Tabor made it interesting, going on an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 11 with the ball and four minutes still to go. But Evans blocked a shot and Davion Cunningham turned that into a layup to push the lead back to 13 and North led by double digits the rest of the way.
“It’s big and we’re happy about it,” Evans said. “We knew we could do it if we just played how we’re supposed to play.”
THREE WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE
Isaiah Evans, North Meck: Scored a game-high 23 points, including 5 in the final minute of the first half that turned a one-point lead into a six-point halftime advantage.
Davion Cunningham, North Meck: Added 17 points for the Vikings, 11 coming in the second half.
Tyler Bailey, Mount Tabor: Led the Spartans with 20 points and helped keep them close by going 11 for 13 from the free throw line.
WORTH MENTIONING
▪ In a day where teams live by the 3-pointer, this game was not that. Evans’ 3-pointer at the end of the second quarter was the only 3 made by either team in the first half, and for the game the teams combined for just six 3s made.
▪ In the third quarter, North Meck’s defense was just stifling. Mount Tabor’s only basket came with 65 seconds left in the quarter and there were two possessions where it took over a minute just to get a shot off.
▪ If there’s a question about North Meck, maybe it’s depth? The Vikings only had six players see action and four players scored all 63 of their points.
▪ This is the third straight season North Meck has reached at least the state quarterfinals, and if it defeats Myers Park on Tuesday, it’ll be three straight in the semifinals. In 2020 North Meck made the state title game, which was then canceled due the COVID outbreak, and last season the Vikings fell to Ardrey Kell in the semifinals.
This story was originally published February 26, 2022 at 10:46 PM.