Western Alamance wins state title, beats Stuart Cramer in 3A girls’ basketball championship
Western Alamance earned its first girls’ basketball state title in blowout fashion.
The high school in Elon grabbed the upper hand early in its 76-58 victory against Stuart Cramer in Friday’s NCHSAA 3A championship game, holding off a powerful offensive effort from one of North Carolina’s most prolific scorers.
Oshauna Holland stood out in her final showing as a junior. The Gaston County standout contributed 49 points for Stuart Cramer.
The Storm’s first state title game appearance in school history caps a 29-3 season for the high school in Cramerton that opened in 2013.
Western Alamance (28-4) senior shooting guard Tina Bowers recorded 26 points and nine rebounds, while senior point guard Allie Sykes added 22 points and five assists.
“The cool thing is that when I got to Western, and (Sykes) got to Western, we really put women’s basketball on the map for that school,” Bowers said. “The program, the fans, the support system has grown so much. With this win, and this being our last season, I really think this is leaving the program, school and history of it in a really sweet spot.
“It’s awesome, and I hope the supporters and fans like it and enjoy it as much as we are.”
How Western Alamance defeated Stuart Cramer for the 3A title
Hundreds of Stuart Cramer students filled up roughly a whole section of Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Friday, clad in black — matching the Storm’s uniforms — while it was the “whiteout” Western Alamance student section that provided the final cheers.
Both sides battled for the lead in a close game early.
Stuart Cramer struck first as senior point guard Hadley Womack drove in for a bucket within the opening 10 seconds. The Storm controlled the tip, and Holland wasn’t missing her shots.
“We thought we had to hold (Holland) to under 50 (points),” Western Alamance head coach Tooey Loy said with a laugh. “I didn’t know it was over until there were about three minutes left. But one thing I did know was that when we got to a 20-point lead, even though it was the third quarter — if this group doesn’t turn it over, we spread the ball, they want to come chase us, we go get layups.”
Holland, whose 28.1 points per game rank sixth in the state, already had 16 of her 49 points when the game wasn’t even midway through the second quarter. Her dominance Friday included scoring 24 of the Storm’s 31 points at halftime, and she finished with a perfect 17-of-17 mark at the free-throw line.
But the Warriors had built a lead of more than 20 points by the third quarter, and their top scorers combined for almost as many points as Holland put up herself.
“I’m super proud of my team,” Holland said. “We work really hard — y’all don’t see it all, just see what’s on the floor — but all of them work extremely hard. Especially Hadley (Womack), it’s gonna be hard losing her coming into this next year, but I’m super proud of my team. Sad it had to end this way, but super proud of them either way.
“This is the first time in 15 years that a school has made it this far from Gaston County. I’m just super proud of my team, even though we didn’t make it as far as we wanted to, we got this far, and next year is more to come. Just getting on this stage is super amazing for Gaston County.”
Notable
▪ Stuart Cramer, a public high school in Cramerton — the small town between Belmont and Gastonia — that opened in 2013, played in its first state championship game.
▪ The Storm entered Friday’s state title game as winners of 15 straight games. They posted a 13-1 record in conference play.
▪ While Western Alamance recorded more regular-season losses than Stuart Cramer this season, the Warriors went unbeaten in their conference and held a higher statewide ranking than the Storm entering Friday.
They said it
“It’s always impressive,” Stuart Cramer head coach Carey Pohlman said of Holland. “I’m just glad I get a front row seat. She’s amazing, man, scoring at every level, she does it all. She’s a coach out there. She’s so smart, does everything the right way. And she’s a great person, and that’s what I’m truly proud of.”
This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 8:07 PM.
