North Mecklenburg holds off Chambers, heads to another NCHSAA 4A state championship game
North Mecklenburg, the reigning N.C. 4A champion, looked like it couldn’t figure out Chambers for the longest time in the NCHSAA 4A Western Regional championship game Wednesday at Joel Coliseum.
Chambers’ length and trapping defenses were causing problems, and the Cougars were leading or near the lead all game. But things changed when Chambers star Tarris Bouie — a top 70 national recruit in the class of 2026 — left the game with four fouls in the third quarter.
With Bouie out, North Mecklenburg finally got a working margin, and when Bouie came back, the Vikings had just enough to hold on for a 64-56 win.
“It definitely changes the game,” North Mecklenburg coach Duane Lewis said. “He got in foul trouble in the first half, with two, but they maintained. We got up six and they scored five points in a row. Then in third quarter they had to sit him back down and they sat him a little bit longer in the fourth quarter. But Ashton (Pierce) finally got going there and hit some big shots for us and it opened it up and it’s great to have the opportunity to play on the last day of the basketball season again.”
North Mecklenburg (29-3) won its fifth straight game and advanced to Saturday’s 4A state championship game against New Hanover High from Wilmington (30-2). New Hanover, which lost to North Meck in the 2024 state final, beat Raleigh’s Sanderson High, 83-55, in the 4A Eastern Regional championship Wednesday.
The Vikings now will attempt to become the first N.C. 4A team to repeat as state champion since Winston-Salem’s Reynolds High won three in a row from 2000-02. No Mecklenburg County team has repeated since West Charlotte in 1991-92. North Meck won the 2005 championship and reached the 2006 final but lost 45-43 to Raleigh’s Wakefield High.
The Vikings got in position for another championship appearance after Bouie fouled Chadlyn Traylor on a 3-point attempt with 2:15 left in the third quarter. North Meck led by two.
“That hurt tremendously,” Chambers coach Brian Frasier said of Bouie. “I tried to hold him off as long as possible. I didn’t want him to get in early in the fourth quarter and pick up his fifth foul. He’s a major impact on what we do with the ability to block shots and offensively being able to score. I thought that impacted the game, me not being able to play him in the fourth quarter as much as I needed to.”
North Mecklenburg’s Ashton Pierce, a Power 4 recruit in the junior class, got hot from outside and North Mecklenburg expanded on its lead.
Bouie came back with 5:11 left in the fourth quarter and North up 48-39. Chambers got within six, but the Vikings were able to hold on.
“We were right there, between that (five to 10 points down) mark, which is OK with us,” Frasier said. “I’ve been down 16 and we’ve walked it back as a team, but tonight, it seemed like every time we made a mistake they capitalized on it.”
Three who mattered
Ashton Pierce, North Mecklenburg: After a quiet first half, Pierce — a Power 4 recruit in the junior class — got going in the second half. He finished with 17 points and made 3 of 7 3-point shots, and he had three steals.
Chadlyn Traylor, North Mecklenburg: Traylor had 15 points, five rebounds and five assists. He was steady against heavy Chambers pressure and kept his team positive when the Cougars made runs. Traylor will play in his third state championship game Saturday, looking for his third ring. He won one at West Charlotte and another at North Meck.
“At the end of the day, after Saturday I have no more high school games,” Traylor said. “So I want to leave my mark on the state of North Carolina and North Mecklenburg. And (Lewis) did a really good job with us and I want to bring another championship that he deserves and the school deserves.”
Cameron Thompson, Chambers: With North Meck so focused on stopping Bouie and Kerr, Thompson had 15 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and a steal.
Notable
▪ North Mecklenburg held Bouie and Markus Kerr to just five points in the second half, using a variety of double-teams and traps to force both top 100 players to move the ball to teammates.
“They’re a really good team and Tarris and Markus Kerr are really talented players,” Lewis said. “So we knew that we had to focus in on them. That was the game plan and our guys did an unbelievable job.”
▪ Neither team shot well. Chambers was 18 for 51 from the field and 7 for 25 from 3. The Cougars did make 13 of 16 free throws. North Mecklenburg was 22 of 50 from the floor, 6 of 18 from 3 and just 14 of 26 from the free-throw line.
▪ Despite heavy trapping from Chambers, which did work at times, North Mecklenburg finished the game with just eight turnovers.
▪ The Vikings will make their sixth appearance in the state finals and try to win a fourth state title. North Meck lost in the 1987 and 2006 state championship games. The Vikings won the title in 2005, 2020 and 2024.
▪ Wednesday was the fourth meeting between North Meck and Chambers, Charlotte-area rivals from the Queen City 3A/4A conference, since early January.
North Mecklenburg both regular-season meetings — 76-73 on Jan. 9 and 83-62 on Feb. 7. Chambers won, 75-70, in the Queen City tournament championship game.
They said it
“They’re a really good team. It’s going to be hard to beat a team three times. We just stayed confident even though last game they got us at their place. But we feel like we’re the best defensive team in the state and we felt like we were real confident to get the win.” — North Meck senior guard Chadlyn Traylor, a College of Charleston signee
Game summary
Chambers 16 6 13 21 — 56
North Mecklenburg 17 6 14 27 — 64
CHAMBERS 56 — LJ Jackson 12, Markus Kerr 11, McCotter 2, Tarris Bouie 13, Cameron Thompson 15, Wilson 3
NORTH MECKLENBURG 64 — Chadlyn Traylor 15, Carson Evans 18, Ashton Pierce 17, Murray 3, Matthews 4, Estwick 7
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 3:30 PM.
