Western and Southeast girls join Graham girls of 1979 as only county teams to win state basketball championships
By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Entering March, there had been one girls’ basketball team from Alamance County to win a North Carolina High School Athletic Association state championship.
In a matter of 24 hours, that number tripled.
Western Alamance in Class 3-A and Southeast Alamance in Class 2-A won championships on back-to-back nights.
Read stories on the girls’ state championship wins:
Western: https://alamancenews.com/breaking-fri-night-western-girls-win-state-3-a-championship/
They join Graham, which won the Class 3-A championship in 1979, on the list of Alamance County champions.
Since the Red Devils’ title, there were numerous contenders. Graham (1980 in Class 3-A), Western Alamance (2000 in Class 2-A), Eastern Alamance (2001 in Class 3-A), Graham (2007, 2008, 2009 in Class 2-A), Williams (2012 in Class 3-A) and River Mill (2013 in Class 1-A) have been runners-up.
Title tidbits
Of the eight championship games – four Friday and four Saturday – West Region champions won six of the state titles. The two titlists from the East Region were Western Alamance and Southeast Alamance.
Four of the championship games ended with double-figure margins. Two of those were recorded by Western and Southeast.
Class 2-A regionals draw the most
Regionals were contested for four consecutive days at Joel Coliseum last week, with East Region and West Region finals in boys’ and girls’ divisions in each of the four classifications. That meant four games per day.
The Class 2-A edition Thursday marked the largest attendance of any of the four days. That was highlighted by the night session with North Wilkes and East Burke in the West Region girls’ final followed by the West Region boys’ tilt between Reidsville and Bandys.
Reidsville had the second-shortest trip (40 miles) of any of the 16 state-championship qualifiers behind only Greensboro Smith (28 miles). Western Alamance (53 miles) had the third-shortest commute, followed by North Wilkes (60 miles).
Reidsville’s repeat
Reidsville repeated as Class 2-A boys’ state champion with a pair of starters who were with Burlington schools two years ago.
Johnniyus Sharpe, formerly of Cummings, and Cam’ron Jones, formerly of Williams, are starters for Reidsville.
The Rams beat Northwood 71-54 in the state final Saturday night. Reidsville’s 31-0 record is the only undefeated mark in the state, boys or girls, this season in the NCHSAA.
Sharpe had 18 points in the final after scoring 26 points in Reidsville’s 79-50 victory against Bandys in the West Region final Thursday night. Dionte Neal of Reidsville posted 24 points and teammate Kendre Harrison compiled 16 points and 11 rebounds against Northwood, a Mid-Carolina Conference team led by Cam Fowler’s 27 points. Harrison posted 26 points and 19 rebounds in the Bandys game.
