Weddington High wins first NCHSAA boys basketball state championship

Weddington raced through this COVID-shortened basketball season, scoring points in bushels and running opponents into the ground.

Saturday, trying to make school history against a kind of opponent it hadn’t seen before, the Warriors’ boys’ basketball team showed it can adapt.

High-flying Weddington became a deliberate team down the stretch and defeated Northwood 56-47 for North Carolina’s 3A boys’ championship.

It is the first basketball state title for Weddington, which has won championships in about a dozen other sports.

“That’s not the style we like to play, but we had to do it today,” said Weddington coach Gary Ellington, whose team averaged more than 79 points a contest in their 18-0 season.

The biggest of Northwood’s three superb freshmen, 6-foot-8 Jarin Stevenson, disrupted much of what Weddington was trying to do offensively. The Chargers (14-3) employed a zone defense that allowed the Warriors only occasional open looks for their favorite, the 3-point shot.

“He’s just a great player,” Ellington said of Stevenson.

So the Warriors switched styles over the final 1½ quarters. They held the ball, waiting for high-percentage shots.

“We had to make them pay for being in that zone,” Ellington said.

The Warriors appeared to solve the Northwood defense in the third quarter, when they broke a 26-26 tie and went on a 12-2 run. A Chase Lowe layup gave Weddington a 41-31 lead with 2:15 left in the third period, but Northwood clawed its way back.

The Chargers tightened their zone defense, and Weddington missed its first four field goal attempts in the fourth quarter. By that point, the lead was cut to 45-40, so Ellington called a time out with three minutes left. He told his team to pass the ball on the perimeter and wait for a good shot.

The Warriors never took another field goal attempt. Instead, they hit 9-of-10 foul shots down the stretch. Northwood committed a pair of costly turnovers to help.

“I think our size and length bothered them,” Northwood coach Matt Brown said. “I don’t think they’ve seen anything like that before. But they made a few big plays down the stretch. That was the difference.”

Guard Brock Bowen, among only two seniors on the Weddington roster, said Saturday’s victory was the culmination of work that started years ago. He noted how several Warrior players have been friends for years and played basketball together as elementary school-age children.

“We didn’t win today just because we played better,” said Bowen, one of four Warriors who scored in double figures. “We won because we worked hard to prepare for this.”

Ellington, noting that 10 of 12 players on the roster will return next season, said his team still had a sense of urgency Saturday.

“There’s no guarantee that you’ll ever come back,” he said. “You have to work hard and make the most of the opportunities you get.”

Three who mattered

Chase Lowe, Weddington: A 6-5 junior guard, Lowe was named the game’s Most Valuable Player. He scored a team-high 14 points, grabbed seven rebounds, and had five assists.

A.J. Cook, Weddington: Another of the Warriors’ superb junior corps, Cook scored 10 points. He was named Weddington’s Outstanding Player of the Game.

Jarin Stevenson, Northwood: A 6-8 freshman, Stevenson scored 13 points, grabbed six rebounds, had five assists, and harassed Weddington defensively both inside and outside.

Worth mentioning

▪ Weddington shot 70 percent from the floor Tuesday in its Regional final victory over Crest. On Saturday, against Northwood’s tough zone, the Warriors hit 18-of-43 for 42 percent. But Weddington was 5-of-10 from the floor in the second half, after going 10-of-27 in the first half.

▪ The game was played at Providence Grove High, in the Randolph County town of Climax.

▪ Weddington coach Gary Ellington said trying to stop Jarin Stevenson was a tough task. “We tried to defend him inside, without giving up open 3’s,” he said. “He made us pay at times. In the end, I guess we did just enough.”

▪ The only seniors on Weddington’s squad are Caleb Wetherbee and Brock Bowen. Both started Saturday.

▪ Only twice this season did Weddington score less than 56 points -- in a 52-43 victory over Monroe on Jan. 8 and in a 54-49 triumph over Charlotte Catholic on Feb. 9.

▪ The Warriors went undefeated despite shutting down their boys’ basketball operations for 14 days in late January and early February, due to COVID-19 protocols.

▪ Weddington had never played in the boys’ state basketball championship before. Northwood was making its fourth appearance. The Chargers, from the Big Eight 3A Conference, have not won a state title.

They said it

“Since the year started, we didn’t talk a lot about the state championship. But we worked hard for it.” — Weddington coach Gary Ellington.

Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle

Game summary

Weddington 14 12 18 12 -- 56

Northwood 11 12 15 9 -- 47

WEDDINGTON: Kyle Frazier 12; Wetherbee 6; Chase Lowe 14; Brock Bowen 11; A.J. Cook 10; Morton 2; Bates 0.

NORTHWOOD: Jarin Stevenson 13; Morgan 0; Burleson 3; Frederick Whitaker 12; Drake Powell 15; Arnold 2; McLandsborough 2.