No. 12 seed Kings Mountain stops Charlotte Catholic, heads to NCHSAA 6A state final
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- Kings Mountain, a No. 12 seed, reached 6A final after a 68-61 win over Charlotte Catholic.
- Sophomore Micaiah Daniel came off bench, made 10‑of‑10, scored 22 points.
- Mountaineers won seven straight, beat top West seeds, will face Northern Nash.
Micaiah Daniel and Kings Mountain, the 2026 NCHSAA Cinderella story, are going to the state championship game.
Daniel, a 6-foot-7 sophomore post, came off the bench to make all 10 of his shots and scored 22 points to power the Mountaineers to a 68-61 win over Charlotte Catholic in the 6A western regional final.
Kings Mountain (16-12) — which started the season 1-3, lost four of six games in January and February and entered the playoffs with a losing record — won its seventh straight game and is going to the finals as a No. 12 seed.
En route to the championship, Kings Mountain won five games in eight days and beat four of the top five teams in the West, including No. 1 seed (and defending state champion) Greensboro Smith on Monday and No. 2 Catholic on Wednesday night at Lenoir-Rhyne to increase the Mountaineers’ winning streak to seven games.
It’s come in a season in which a water leak at the high school gymnasium meant Kings Mountain had to play all its home games at nearby Kings Mountain Middle School.
The Mountaineers will play in the final for the first time in 36 years next week in Winston-Salem. Kings Mountain will face Northern Nash at Joel Coliseum.
Northern Nash (24-3), from Rocky Mount, beat Fayetteville’s E.E. Smith, 50-39, in the eastern regional championship game at East Carolina Wednesday.
Charlotte Catholic (25-5) had a seven-game win streak snapped and lost its bid to reach its first state final since 2016, when the Cougars won the 4A title, then the state’s largest classification.
“Our luck ran out,” said Cougars coach Mike King, whose team trailed in all four postseason games this year. “Kings Mountain played with a chip on their shoulder and we looked like the team playing five games in eight days.
“They just made more plays.”
Wednesday, Catholic fell behind 9-0 early and was down 31-27 at halftime. After trailing by a game-high 61-49 with 1:55 to play, Catholic got within 66-61 before Kings Mountain held on to avenge a 70-52 loss at Catholic on Dec. 5.
The Mountaineers made a big push toward the end of the third quarter and continued it into the fourth, constantly going inside to Daniel — who came into the game averaging 9 points per game. Daniel scored on a variety of layups and half hooks.
Kings Mountain scored 46 points in the paint.
Jack Siegel had a game-high 26 points for Catholic, including shooting 6-of-9 from 3-point range.
Game summary
Kings Mountain 19 13 16 20 — 68
Catholic 14 13 13 21 — 61
KINGS MOUNTAIN 61 — Ethan Daniel 18, Silas Tate 11, Nixon 6, Jarrett 6, Hutchens 4, Hill 1, Micaiah Daniel 22.
CATHOLIC 68 — M. Kapsiak 4, J. Kapsiak 8, Jack Siegel 26, Woeste 2, Mack Jordan 13, Culpepper 8.
Records: Kings Mountain 16-12, Catholic 25-5.
This story was originally published March 4, 2026 at 9:30 PM.