After 57 years, Myers Park’s Mustangs say, ‘It’s our turn now’

Something troubles Scott Taylor.

“I’ve gone back, looking at the records,” said Taylor, boys’ basketball coach at Myers Park High School.

“The last time this school got to the state championship game was 1966,” Taylor said.

“!966!” he added, for emphasis. “That’s a long time.”

At noon Saturday, Taylor’s Mustangs (26-4) have a chance to do away with that 57-year dry spell. They face North Mecklenburg (28-2) at Providence High in the 4A West Regional championship. The winner advances to the state title game next weekend.

Despite being tabbed as a state championship contender already last summer, this Myers Park team carries a bit of a chip on its shoulder.

The Mustangs aren’t happy about their regular-season stumbles against Chambers and Carmel Christian. They’d like to make amends for a 91-73 loss last year to North Mecklenburg in the playoff quarterfinals.

And there’s that long dry spell between state championship appearances.

Taylor pointed to Myers Park’s history of athletic success in just about every sport and said, “We’re really due in basketball.”

The Mustangs have made two state title appearances. They lost 66-54 to New Hanover in 1961, then fell 70-69 in 1966 to Fayetteville.

Since then, other Mecklenburg County schools have made 27 appearances in boys’ state championship games. West Charlotte has been there eight times, winning six (mostly in 4A but last year in 3A). South Mecklenburg has played for a state title five times.

And the Mustangs’ opponent Saturday, North Mecklenburg, has four state championship appearances.

“We’ve been getting close,” Taylor said. “We’ve been to the Elite 8 three times in the last five years. It’s time for us to break through.”

Taylor said he remembers a conversation last summer with Myers Park girls’ coach Barbara Nelson, who has coached nine state championship teams at Providence Day and with the Mustangs.

“Coach Nelson came into the office after we’d been working out, and I recall her saying, ‘I think you have a chance to win it.’ ”

Indeed, Taylor’s team was a popular pick to win it all. Nearly everyone was back from last year’s team, and the Mustangs added 6-4 junior guard Bishop Boswell.

The Mustangs have won some of their playoff games with their inside strength – 6-8 sophomore A.J. White and 6-8 senior Elijah Strong. In Tuesday’s 76-44 quarterfinal victory over Charlotte Catholic, they showed another side of their offense, hitting 10 3-pointers.

And when Myers Park wants to play defense, the Mustangs can shut down an opponent.

The early-season loss to Chambers raised some questions, but the Mustangs responded by playing well in a prestigious Florida tournament before Christmas and then winning the Arby’s Invitational after Christmas.

”Our goal, all along, was to get the No. 1 seed, so we could play at home for most of the playoffs,” Taylor said. “The support we get from our home crowd is absolutely ridiculous.”

Myers Park and Chambers were in contention for the West’s No. 1 seed, but a Chambers loss to North Mecklenburg in the conference tournament finals gave top seeding to the Mustangs.

“We got what we hoped for, and then we had to go out and take advantage of it,” Taylor said.

For the first time in this tournament, neither Myers Park nor third-seeded North Mecklenburg will have home-court advantage Saturday.

“We still have two games to win,” Taylor said. “But so far, we’ve done what we needed to do. We’re looking forward to this next step.”

Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle