By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Tina Bowers scored 26 points and Allie Sykes racked up 22 points as Western Alamance won the Class 3-A state championship in girls’ basketball Friday night at Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem.
The Warriors defeated Cramer 76-58.
Sykes, a senior guard, was named the Most Valuable Player of the championship game.
Western (28-4), the East Region champion, won all six of its playoff games by at least 14 points.
It was only the second time an Alamance County team had won a North Carolina High School Athletic Association state championship in girls’ basketball, though a day later Southeast Alamance won in Class 2-A.
“I think the cool thing when I got to Western, we really put women’s basketball on the map for that school,” said Bowers, who received an award as the top player representing the East Region finalist. “The program, the fans, the support system has grown so much.”
The Warriors’ title came in the first season for coach Tooey Loy, a Western alum who was a standout boys’ player. His coaching career included time on the Division I college level as High Point’s women’s coach.
The championship game looked familiar to Loy.
“Like they played the last month and a half – together,” he said. “The ball moved, defense, rebounding. Just great team effort and that’s what they’ve been about the last month and a half.”
Oshauna Holland scored 49 points for Cramer (29-3). The junior was 17-for-17 on free throws.
Western outscored Cramer 33-6 from beyond the 3-point arc. Sykes hit four 3s and Bowers, who also had a game-high nine rebounds, connected on three 3s.
“It was the best way to go out,” Sykes said.
Loy said the Warriors were intent on applying more pressure on Holland in the second half, and he sensed that helped wear her down.
By halftime, Western was up 41-31 as Sykes accounted for 15 points, while Holland was up to 24 points.
The Warriors began the second half on a 12-0 run.
Western’s efficiency made it difficult on Cramer.
“They were shooting the ball,” Cramer coach Carey Pohlma said. “… We tried zone, had to go back to man-(to-man) because they were shooting well. Tried press, they did a good job with that.”
The Warriors dominated in the middle two quarters. They led 19-18 after the first quarter, then built their advantage to 57-37 through three quarters.
Western trailed by four points early in the game. Bowers drilled a 3-pointer with more than five minutes left in the opening quarter and the Warriors led the rest of the way.
Western’s main rotation of six players included five seniors.
“They’ve played so many minutes together,” Loy said.
Yet when foul trouble hit in the title game, freshman Ava Mitchell, who didn’t play in the East Region final earlier in the week, provided five points in six minutes.
Western made it this far once before, falling in the 2000 state final. Cramer was in its first state final.
