NCHSAA state championship recap: Get scores, game highlights
Four championship games Saturday brought an end to the high school basketball season in North Carolina.
Champions were crowned in 4A and 2A, a day after the 3A and 1A state champions were decided.
Charlotte-area teams winning state championships were North Mecklenburg’s boys and the Central Cabarrus boys.
The results
FRIDAY
1A boys’ championship: Wilson Prep 65, Corvian Community 63
3A girls’ championship: West Rowan 64, Terry Sanford 52
1A girls’ championship: Cherokee 74, East Columbus 32
3A boys’ championship: Central Cabarrus 90, Seventy-First 62
SATURDAY
4A girls’ championship: Rolesville 65, Charlotte Catholic 58
2A girls’ championship: North Pitt 76, East Burke 66
2A boys’ championship, 5 p.m.: Reidsville 78, Farmville Central 77 (OT)
4A boys’ championship, 7:30 p.m.: North Mecklenburg 57, New Hanover 47
4A boys: North Meck prevails
Isaiah Evans leads North Mecklenburg past previously unbeaten New Hanover.
3A boys: Central Cabarrus rolls on
Central Cabarrus caps a second straight undefeated season.
1A boys: Corvian’s bid falls just short
Corvian Community falls victim to a Wilson Prep rally.
4A girls: Rolesville tops Charlotte Catholic
Rolesville rallied in the fourth quarter and beat Charlotte Catholic 65-58.
3A girls: West Rowan repeats
West Rowan scored 18 of the game’s final 23 points and pulled away from Terry Sanford 64-52 Friday afternoon, winning its second straight 3A girls’ state championship.
The Falcons (31-1), who trailed for much of the opening three quarters, were down 47-46 with 5:13 remaining after Beonna Roaf’s 3-pointer for Terry Sanford (26-6).
Emma Clarke pulled West Rowan ahead 48-47 with a jumper at the 5:00 mark, and Lauren Arnold scored 23 seconds later on a layup. From there, the Falcons gradually pulled away.
They outscored the Bulldogs 23-14 in the fourth quarter.
“Their defense was very good,” Clarke, a 6-foot senior said of Terry Sanford. “They were very tough, very quick. We found the tendencies in their defense and worked around them.”
West Rowan’s defense was stout too. The Falcons held Terry Sanford to 29 percent shooting (20-of-69) from the floor. West Rowan hit 41.9 percent of its shots (23-of-56).
Falcons’ coach Ashley Poole said her team showed persistence.
“We maybe didn’t get some calls in the early going, but we kept at it,” she said. “I thought the girls worked hard and played through it.”
Tiara Thompson led West Rowan with 18 points, while Arnold finished with 17 points and 17 rebounds. Emma Clarke had 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Roaf topped Terry Sanford with 18 points.
2A girls: North Pitt wins title
North Pitt led nearly all the way but had to hold off a late East Burke rally Saturday afternoon as the Panthers won the 2A girls’ state championship 76-66.
The loss was the first of the season in 32 games for East Burke. North Pitt, which also won state titles in 1972, 2016 and 2018, finished 29-3.
North Pitt led by five points after the first quarter (20-15), by six at halftime (35-29) and by eight after three quarters (54-46). The Panthers built their lead to 12 points, but when leading scorers Zamareya Jones and Jordan Speller were forced to sit for several minutes with their fourth fouls, East Burke rallied.
The Cavaliers close the gap to six points with about three minutes left, but Jones and Speller returns, and North Pitt held on.
“In the end, our girls stuck together,” North Pitt coach Antwon Pittman said. “They (East Burke) were 31-0 for a reason. We had to be prepared for a heavyweight fight today.”
East Burke coach Crystal Bartlett said, “The hardest part of this is how we worked. And on Monday, when we’re all finished, I will really miss this.”
Jones, a McDonald all-American and an N.C. State commit, had 21 points, 14 rebounds and five assists. Freshman Jordan Speller had 31 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists.
“She had 31 points in a state championship game, as a freshman,” Jones said. “Nobody does that.”
East Burke sophomore Kara Brinkley totaled 28 points and 19 rebounds, and junior Braelyn Stilwell had 23 points.
2A boys: Advantage, Reidsville
Reidsville won the rubber match Tuesday evening.
The Rams held off Farmville Central 78-77 in overtime, winning the 2A boys’ state championship. The game was a rematch of last year’s 2A state title, which Farmville Central won 75-63.
The teams also met at the John Wall Invitational in December in Raleigh, with Reidsville winning 76-66. That gives the Rams a 2-1 advantage in recent meetings of these perennial state powers.
The victory came 100 years after Reidsville won its first state championship.
Reidsville (29-0) bolted to a nine-point lead in the first quarter, but Farmville Central (30-2) battled back to a 32-all halftime tie.
The game remained close from there. Reidsville led 70-67 near the end of regulation, but Farmville Central’s M.J. Williams connected on a 3-pointer with five seconds left. That sent the game into overtime.
With a crowd of more than 8,000 standing much of the overtime, the teams traded the lead three times in the extra four minutes.
Johnniyus Shape put Reidsville ahead 72-70, but the Jaguars’ Alex Moye tied it moments later. Kendre Harrison scored two straight baskets, giving the Rams a 76-72 lead with 1:51 to play. But Farmville Central’s Tyler Whitehurst connected on a 3-pointer, and Williams scored on a layup. That put the Jaguars back in front 77-76 with 56 seconds remaining.
Reidsville got the game’s final points with 17 seconds left, on a Dionte Neal layup. Farmville Central missed a final shot.
It was the fifth state title for Reidsville, which also won in 1924, 1973, 1004 and 2003. Farmville Central won staate titles in 1989, 1990, 1993, 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2023. The Jaguars also were co-champions in 2020, when COVID-19 shut down the playoffs before the state finals.
Sharpe led Reidsville with 29 points, and Harrison added 19 points and 13 rebounds. Williams had 23 points for Farmville Central, with Moye adding 22 points and 12 rebounds.
1A girls: Cherokee rolls
Cherokee led from start to finish Friday night and posted one of the most lopsided victories in recent high school basketball history, pummeling East Columbus 74-32 for the 1A girls’ championship.
The Braves (29-1) piled up a huge lead early, and when their advantage reached 40 points with 2:24 remaining, it started a running clock for the rest of the game.
Only once in at least the last 30 years has a team won in the girls’ championship game by more than 40 points — in 2021, when Murphy beat Princeton 76-34 in the 1A girls’ final.
At halftime, Cherokee led 36-18, and 6-2 freshman Joscelyn Stamper had as many rebounds (10) as the entire East Columbus team. She also had 13 points and six steals.
It was the second girls’ basketball state championship for Cherokee, which also won in 1996. The Braves lost in the 1998 title contest.
East Columbus (26-2) was making its first state championship appearance.
Stamper finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds, and Swimmer also had 17 points. Whitney Rogers had 14 points. Malik Graham topped East Columbus with 10.
This story was originally published March 11, 2024 at 5:00 AM.