Southern Durham tops Mooresville to win its first NC state championship

Mooresville High’s boys’ basketball state championship debut ended in disappointment Saturday night.

The Blue Devils couldn’t hold off a second half rally by Southern Durham in a 54-47 defeat in the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 7A championship game at Joel Coliseum.

Mooresville had entered the season with only one Elite Eight appearance in history — and that was all the way back in 2001.

But under sixth-year head coach Armard Moore, the Blue Devils entered the state final on a 17-game winning streak after last week’s upset of two-time defending state champion North Mecklenburg in the Western 7A final.

“What a great game,” said Moore, whose program went 4-21 the year before his arrival and progressed to finish with five straight winning seasons. “Our kids came out and played really hard. They just made a few more plays than we did.”

Mooresville (27-3) roared ahead 8-2 and 11-3 in the first quarter before Spartans (28-3) crept back and eventually took their first lead at 19-18 in the middle of the second quarter.

The Blue Devils took a 24-23 lead at the break and were ahead 31-25 with 3:39 left in the third quarter before Southern Durham made its winning push.

A.J. Morman’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer gave the Spartans a 39-36 lead entering the final period.

Mooresville tied the score at 42 and 45 before Southern Durham took the lead for good with 4:24 to play at 47-45.

The Spartans closed out the game on an 8-2 surge led by A.J. Morman, Jr.’s 16 points and Keyonee Terry’s 13.

The victory marked Southern Durham’s first state title after losing in the title game in 1959 and last season.

Mooresville’s crowd was one of the largest and most vocal of the 16-game, four-day NCHSAA state championship games.

“For us to come from a small town to fill up a lot of this arena was just crazy,” said Blue Devils guard Jordan Walton, who shared top scoring honors of 11 points with teammate Nolan Ericson.

Walton and Ericson were among 11 seniors who have sparked the program’s turnaround.

“Those guys got us here,” Moore said. “They left a legacy. Nobody else can say they did what this group did.”

Game summary

Southern Durham 8 15 16 15 — 54

Mooresville 15 9 12 11 — 47

SOUTHERN DURHAM 54 — A.J. Morman, Jr. 16, Glaspie 3, Dillon 4, Martin Ashley 10, Jeffries 4, Henriquez 4, Keyonee Terry 13.

MOORESVILLE 47 — Jordan Walton 11, Nolan Ericson 11, Wilson 9, E. Bailey 8, McKinnon 8.

Records: Southern Durham 28-4, Mooresville 27-3.

This story was originally published March 14, 2026 at 9:20 PM.