Cold shooting Garner girls fall to Vance in NCHSAA 4A basketball finals
Garner High’s girls basketball team came into Saturday’s N.C. 4A state championship with Charlotte’s Vance Cougars averaging about 70 points per game.
The Trojans barely got half of that in the final.
Vance won 74-38 and held Garner to 23.5 percent shooting and outrebounded the Trojans 50-23. Garner (17-1) never seemed to get comfortable, bothered by the Cougars’ size advantage and, perhaps, a little bothered by the moment.
Garner, which won the 1978 state championship, was in the final for the first since losing 64-41 to Wilson’s Fike High School in 1979.
“I think it was moreso nerves,” Garner coach William Stigler said. “Never been here before. I have four seniors leaving. It was just a lot of nerves, emotions, and the ball just didn’t drop for us today. Don’t make any excuses for our shooting. It just wasn’t going in today.”
Vance (12-0) repeated as N.C. 4A state champions. The Cougars were named co-champions with Southeast Raleigh last season when the N.C. High School Athletic Association canceled the state finals due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It feels wonderful,” Vance coach Donnell Rhyne said. “I’m so happy for the seniors (who) are standing beside me. They put in a lot of work to get to this point. People don’t know the sacrifices they made: running steps, early morning practices, all sorts of things. People just look at them and feel they have a great team; they play AAU. But they had to come together as a team. They had to bond.
“So I feel wonderful about this.”
Saturday, Vance (12-0) played its traditional zone defense, using its size — starting posts Trinity and Amhyia Moreland are both 6-2 — and Garner, a smaller, quicker team, could never get its offense going.
The Trojans had just made four field goals and had 18 points midway through the third quarter when Vance’s Leah Barringer made her fourth 3-point shot of the game. Vance led by 18.
Barringer, a senior, had 16 points of her 32 points in that third quarter when Vance put the game away, turning a 10-point halftime lead into a blowout. Barringer scored 26 points in the second half, and the Cougars led 53-30 heading into the fourth quarter.
Barringer was named championship MVP after making 10-of-12 field goal attempts, 5-of-6 3-point attempts and all seven free throws she took. She also had four rebounds, three assists and a steal.
“I had to lock in and get my head right,” she said. “I realized I was in my head in the first quarter and I knew I wanted to finish it out with my team, so I stepped up.”
Rhyne, the Vance coach, also credited Barringer and M’Kaylah Marshall for their defense on Garner star Jerni Kiaku, who was averaging 26 points per game.
Kiaku finished with 14 points and no other Trojan had more than Swinn Bastian, who had eight points, nine rebounds and two steals.
“Our game plan,” Rhyne said, “was when (Kiaku) touched the ball, slow her down. She’s one of the fastest guards I’ve seen. One time, I just looked around and she was already shooting the basket.”
Garner shot 2-for-10 in the first quarter and 0-for-7 in the second. For the game the Trojans made 12-of-51 shots. Asked how his team felt afterwards, Stigler leaned in close to a microphone.
“They were frustrated,” he said, “because we haven’t been to a state championship game for women since (1979). So there was a lot riding on the line, and I believe we put a little more pressure on ourselves to win the game versus coming out and playing the game.
“At the beginning of the year, nobody gave Garner women’s basketball any credit. So we won conference, regionals and to be state runner-up, all in the same eyar, is a big accomplishment for Garner Magnet High School and the Garner community.”
Game summary
Vance 15 8 30 21 — 74
Garner 8 5 17 8 — 58
VANCE 74 — Leah Barringer 32, Marshall 0, Hayes 8, Trinity Moreland 15, Amhyia Moreland 11, Washington 0, Piggee 3, Goodwin 0, Perkins 0, Richardson 5, Brown 0
GARNER 58 — Jerni Kiaku 14, Hicks 4, Ofunniyin 4, Wilkins 3, Bastian 8, Tucker 0, Darden 0, Mosley 0, Bell 3, Lee 2, Billings 0
Records: Vance 12-0, Garner 17-1
Championship MVP: Leah Barringer, Vance
Team Most Outstanding: Jerni Kiaku, Garner; Trinity Moreland, Vance
