By Marc Pruitt
MaxPreps.com
It was a busy week for prep basketball in North Carolina, with the Eastern and Western Regional championships taking place to determine who would meet for state championships on Saturday, March 15.
There are some familiar names coming out of the West, and a few surprising ones who escaped from the East.
Champions from the West will take on the champions from the East when all teams converge on either Chapel Hill or Raleigh on Saturday to decide the best teams from the four classifications for boys and girls.
Here is a look at what happened last week and a preview of Saturday’s matchups:
4-A Boys
East Mecklenburg finally solved the puzzle of intra-city rival Vance with a convincing 71-55 win in the Western Regional final. East Mecklenburg had lost in 2006 and 2007 to Vance in the semifinals of the Regional but this time got a 28-point, eight-assist, and six-rebound performance from MVP Malik Stith.
“(Stith) dominated the basketball game,” coach Will Robinson of Vance said of Stith’s performance in the final. “Tonight his experience showed. There were a lot of talented guards on the floor, but he knew exactly what to do and how to handle himself. He was pretty unstoppable.”
Saturday's final will be the first state championship game appearance in the school’s 58-year history for East Mecklenburg (24-8). It will take on Apex (19-12), a surprise finalist, at 7:30 at Reynolds Coliseum on the campus of North Carolina State. Apex has defeated four No. 1 seeds en route to the championship game after losing in the first round of its conference tournament.
4-A Girls
West Charlotte (29-2) ended the perfect season of Greensboro Grimsley in the Western semifinals, then derailed McDowell, 78-57, in the final. It will take on Fayetteville Westover in the state final at 5 p.m. at Reynolds Coliseum.
Westover (29-2) surprised Raleigh Wakefield in the East final, a team that had been ranked in several national polls all season, including by USA Today.
3-A Boys
Led by its floppy-headed point guard Josh Pittman, the Trinity boys finally broke through after two straight years of close calls for a 68-48 win over Kernersville Glenn in the Western Regional final.
Trinity (30-1) had lost in each of the last two seasons to Concord in Sectional finals.
Pittman was named the MVP after scoring 31 points in the championship game, but the Bulldogs will have their hands full Saturday at the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill with Kinston (27-4), the state runner-up in 2007.
Kinston defeated Greensboro Dudley, 68-51, in the East Final. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
3-A Girls
Upstart Concord, a young team that starts two freshmen, held off previously unbeaten Gastonia Forestview in the West final for a 70-66 win.
Concord (30-2) will take on Wilson Beddingfield (27-1) at 5 p.m. at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill.
Senior T.T. Belcher, freshman Jatzmin Johnson and sophomore Nyisha Hammonds had sparkling performances in both wins for Concord during the Regional.
2-A Boys
In his second season at Canton Pisgah, coach Tommy Johnson has put his team in the state championship game. Pisgah handed Shelby an 84-73 loss in the Western final by splitting its pressure defense and finding shots for Jarrod Conrad, who turned in 32 points and was named MVP.
Johnson, who mixed in youthful exuberance with some happy tears after the game, credited the win to a team who believed in what he was teaching them and good, hard-nosed, and smart basketball.
“It feels like hard work,” Johnson said. “It feels pretty darn good.”
It was the second straight season Shelby lost in the Regional final, a feeling that coach Aubrey Hollifield couldn’t quite put into words.
“It’s hard, it’s real hard, “Hollifield said. “I don’t want to take anything away from them by saying we played bad. Our guys played hard.
Pisgah (24-4) will take on West Bladen (29-2) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Reynolds Coliseum.
2-A Girls
East Davidson (27-4) won the rubber match with Central Carolina Conference rival Salisbury; this one was the one that mattered most. East pulled away with strong scoring totals in the second and third quarters for a 51-37 win. The two teams had split home wins against each other during the regular season and Salisbury prevailed in the conference tournament championship game in double overtime.
It was the third straight season each team had been in the Regional and coach Terry Allmon was proud that his team finally found a way to advance to the state championship.
“This is as great a feeling as I’ve ever had,” Allmon said. “We’ve been knocking on the door the last couple of years. Now that door has finally opened.”
East will take on Graham (31-1), a 53-34 winner over Red Springs in the East final, at Reynolds Coliseum at noon Saturday.
1-A Boys
Winston-Salem Prep and Thomasville, two heavyweights in the West, battled it out before Prep took advantage of some foul trouble and pulled away for a 79-58 win.
Reginald Johnson, Prep’s 6-foot-10 center who has signed to play at Miami, scored 29 points and MVP Marcus Wright added 23 for the Phoenix (31-6).
Thomasville was the defending 1-A state champion and had won four of the last seven titles.
The loss ended the remarkable prep career of E.J. Abrams-Ward of the Bulldogs. Abrams-Ward, who has signed to play football at Tennessee next year, has been an outstanding football and basketball player in North Carolina for the last four years.
Prep will play Pamlico (20-6) in the Dean Dome Saturday at noon.
1-A Girls
Bishop McGuinness keeps rolling. The Villains (26-6) have won two straight state titles and could be well on their way to a third after a 52-36 win over Chatham Central in the Western final.
MVP Erinn Thompson, a 6-3 junior center for McGuinness, finished with 20 points and 15 rebounds.
Pender (30-3) is the only thing standing in McGuinness’ way in its quest for a three-peat. Pender defeated East Bladen 70-56 in the Eastern final.
Tip-off is scheduled for noon Saturday at the Dean Dome.
Marc Pruitt, a freelance sports writer for the Winston-Salem Journal, covers North Carolina for MaxPreps.com. Email him at MPruitt71@gmail.com.
