All undefeated teams lose in first week of North Carolina boys basketball tournament

We've only gone into the quarterfinals of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association boys basketball tournament, but one thing has already been decided — there won't be an undefeated state champion.
Three schools entered the NCHSAA tournament unbeaten — Garner Magnet in 4A and Smoky Mountain (Sylva) and Fairmont in 2A — and they all lost in the first week.

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26-0 GARNER LOSES IN TRIPLE OVERTIME
The most dramatic exit was in Garner, where the 26-0 Trojans lost 96-94 in triple-overtime to New Hanover (Wilmington) in the third round. The Trojans also lost to New Hanover in the same round last year, albeit only in a single overtime.

According to the Raleigh News & Observer, Garner missed potential winning shots at the end of the regulation and the first two overtimes.



On the other hand, according to the Wilmington Star News, New Hanover trailed by six in the final two minutes of regulation and by five in the decisive overtime period before coming back.

Gavin Wilson's career-high sixth 3-pointer put Garner ahead 89-84 with 2 1/2 minutes left in triple overtime, but Freddie Jackson (34 points) eventually tied the game at 91 on a 3 and then hit the go-ahead basket with 22 seconds left to finish the scoring.

Wilson was 6-for-9 from behind the arc and scored 24 points, Emanuel McClain had 11 points, 11 assists and six steals while Dominique Reed had 15 points and 16 rebounds (eight offensive) for the Trojans.

Garner's loss wasn't entirely unexpected — the Trojans needed overtime to get past 12-12 Hoke County (Raeford) in the previous round. The Trojans trailed by nine with four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter against the Bucks before pulling out a 70-69 win.

27-0 SMOKY MOUNTAIN ALLOWS 11 UNANSWERED POINTS
Smoky Mountain's season came to an abrupt end when East Rutherford (Forest City) scored the final 11 points to win 67-58 in the third round. Marshall commitment Devince Boykins had 21 points for East Rutherford.

Jackson Simmons, who will walk on at UNC next year, finished with 16 points for Smoky Mountain (27-1) but was held scoreless in the fourth quarter.



According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, Mark Thompson gave the state's top-ranked 2A team a 58-56 lead on a 3-pointer with 4:40 left, but Zach Price answered with a 3 that put the Cavaliers ahead to stay.

East Rutherford improved to 24-1, with its only loss coming by two points to 3A Freedom (Morganton). The Vikings since avenged that loss, winning at Freedom by 19 and then beating the Patriots again by 15 in the South Mountain Athletic Conference championship game.

FREE THROW WOES DOOM 20-0 FAIRMONT
2A's other undefeated team lost in the second round when second-ranked Fairmont lost to fourth-ranked Cummings (Burlington) 79-73.

While Smoky Mountain had been winning by an average of 23.5 points, no one had been more dominant than Fairmont, with an average margin of victory of 26.4 and which hadn't won by less than eight this season.

Cummings made a decisive move in the second quarter, ending the half on a 24-6 run to enter the break up 17.
The Cavaliers mounted a comeback in the second half, but went 8 of 18 from the foul line in the fourth quarter to keep the margin from getting closer than six. According to The Robesonian, Fairmont was 15 of 33 from the line overall, while Cummings was 25 of 34.

"Same old, same old for us at the free-throw line," Fairmont coach Michael Baker told the paper. "I told the guys from the start that we needed to hit free throws in the playoffs. It's been our problem all year."



Quinton Morrow had a game-high 27 points in the win, while Juwan Addison had 21 points for Fairmont.

TWO DEFENDING CHAMPS STILL ALIVE
2A Kinston and 3A Rocky Mount are both still alive in their efforts to repeat as state champions. Rocky Mount wore out West Craven (Vanceboro) 94-66 and Kinston rallied to defeat Bertie (Windsor) 63-57 as both teams advanced to the state quarterfinals.

Kinston trailed by six with 4:42 remaining when the Falcons went to a full-court trap and scored the next 13 points, grabbing their first lead with 3:17 left and never looking back.

"We were flawless down the stretch," Kinston coach Wells Gulledge said in Kinston Varsity Sports. "It says a lot about the pride that these kids have, the way they didn't quit and refused to be denied."

Meanwhile, Rocky Mount led by nine midway through the third quarter but ran past a West Craven team that dressed just nine players.
 
"Our guys are in shape, but it started to wear down on us toward the end," West Craven coach Bryan Goehring told the New Bern Sun Journal.

Darius McKnight had 24 points on 10 of 15 shooting and Devonte Jenkins had 18 points and 15 rebounds for Rocky Mount.



CINDERELLA ALERT
Of the 32 teams who advanced to the quarterfinals in the four classes, only five weren't regular-season champions of their conference. But if anyone can make the case as Cinderella, it's West Rowan (Mt. Ulla).

The Falcons (18-10) started the season 5-9 but are now in the 3A quarterfinals thanks to Connor Edwards' 3-pointer at the buzzer, which gave West Rowan a 69-68 win over Northwest Cabarrus (Concord).

The Falcons led 25-9 after the first quarter, but Northwest recovered from the early blow and appeared to end West Rowan's season when Ameer Jackson scored a go-ahead basket with 2.7 seconds left.

Then B.J. Sherrill made the inbounds pass to Dominique Noble, who passed to Edwards for the winning basket.

"It's a play I got from Eddie Payne (who played at Wake Forest and coached Gurley at Belmont Abbey)," Falcons coach Mike Gurley told the Salisbury Post. "It's a pretty good play, but it had never worked for us."

The other non-No. 1 seeds to advance are No. 3 Riverside (Williamston) in 1A, No. 2 Rocky Mount in 3A and two 4A teams, No. 2 Mount Tabor (Winston-Salem.) and No. 3 Millbrook (Raleigh).



Harold Gutmann covers the state of North Carolina for MaxPreps.com. He lives in Durham and can be reached at haroldgutmann@gmail.com.