By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Western Alamance will try to win the first girls’ basketball state championship in school history Friday after another workmanlike performance sprinkled with brilliance in the Class 3-A East Region final.
The Warriors knocked off defending East Region champion Fayetteville Sanford 64-48 on Monday night at Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem.
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“We’ve been working for this all year,” Western center Cayden White said. “I wouldn’t want to do it with anybody else.”
Western will play in the state final for the first time in 25 years since a 2000 loss to Ledford in Class 2-A.
The Warriors, playing in front of a hugely partisan crowd, never trailed in the regional final. Allie Sykes scored 28 points and Tina Bowers poured in 24 points as Western withstood the hard-charging Bulldogs in the third quarter and then pulled away again.
“I was feeling confidence coming into this game,” Bowers said. “When I was hitting shots early in the game, it kind of solidified, ‘Yeah, I got this.’ ”
Western looked comfortable from the get-go. It will return to the coliseum in pursuit of a bigger prize.
The Warriors (27-4) meet Cramer, a 62-38 winner in the West Region final Monday afternoon, at 6:05 p.m. Friday in the championship game.
Jaidiah Blake scored 22 points for top-seeded Fayetteville Sanford (27-4). Four Bulldogs fouled out.
The Warriors made them pay, sinking 23 of 30 free-throw attempts.
Earlier, Sykes scored 10 points in slightly more than four minutes to begin the game. The Warriors went up 17-9, and later in the quarter led 25-13.
“Locked in,” Loy said. “I didn’t think we had a whole lot of nerves. I thought we were nervous the last round. I think that kind of got our nerves out. I think that kind of showed the first five minutes.”
Another Sykes 3-pointer made it 30-16 before the Bulldogs closed within 30-23 at halftime.
“I don’t know if I’ve seen them quit pressing this year,” Loy said of scouting Fayetteville Sanford. “We attacked their press and handled their pressure and they got out of the press. That’s a compliment to the girls of being strong with the ball and playing a great game.”
White’s basket to open the third quarter ended Western’s scoring drought. Yet the spread dipped to 37-34 before Xiomara Moser’s drive for a basket.
“We knew that was going to happen,” Sykes said. “We know when things go down, we’ve got to stay energized. Things aren’t always going to go our way.”
Then Bowers posted the last basket of the third quarter. She began the fourth with a 3-pointer, putting the Warriors up 44-36.
Then Bowers posted the last basket of the third quarter. She began the fourth with a 3-pointer, putting the Warriors up 44-36.
The Warriors held a morning shoot-around at Schar Center on Elon University’s campus in what Loy said was an attempt to get a feel for a larger venue.
It might have paid off as Western hit about 72 percent of its first-quarter shots.
“They did a nice job of coming in and competing and embracing the moment,” Fayetteville Sanford coach Christopher Goodman said.
Friday’s slate of games begins with the Class 1-A boys’ final between Southern Wake and Corvian Community at 1:05 p.m. and then the Class 1-A girls’ title game between East Bladen and Cherokee at 3:35 p.m.. The Western-Cramer matchup will be followed by the Class 3-A boys’ final pitting Southern Durham vs. Greensboro Smith at 8:35 p.m.
How Western got here
Western captured its fourth home playoff victory, turning away third-seeded Union Pines 66-52 on Friday night.
Fayetteville Sanford was an 88-45 winner against previously undefeated Wilson Fike
Sykes scored 31 points in her last home game.
“We were locked in,” Sykes said. “We definitely had a different intensity.”
That was evident by a super-charged atmosphere.
“The crowd was lit,” Moser said. “We’re all lit.”
The second-seeded Warriors had all they could handle from Union Pines senior Ashanti Fox, an Elon recruit who racked up 35 points. The Vikings finished 27-2, including a 65-50 second-round victory against Eastern Alamance when Fox pumped in 40 points.
Western trailed for most of the first quarter before Sykes’ 3-pointer. Bowers and Sykes connected on 3s for the last two baskets of the first half as the Warriors staked a 28-24 halftime lead.
It looked good for Western when it built a 39-31 lead, capped by a Bowers 3.
“We came out the second half and moved it better,” Loy said.
But Union Pines rattled off an 11-2 burst – with nine points coming on three 3s by Fox. After the last one, she was assessed a technical foul for her reaction to the basket.
Sykes made both free throws awarded for the technical to regain the lead for the Warriors. She sank a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession.
“We really responded and stayed together,” Loy said.
To open the fourth quarter, the Warriors collected an offensive rebound before Moser drilled a 3-pointer for a 49-42 lead.
“Once we hit the 3 to go up (seven), if we got it back they were going to have to chase us,” Loy said.
Western didn’t make another shot from the field. Among the string of attempted foul shots, Sykes went 12-for-14 on free throws the rest of the way.
Moser finished with 10 points and Bowers had nine points. Sykes made four 3s and Moser and Bowers each had two.
Western shot 21-for-28 at the free-throw line.
Then it was off to a different type of venue. Joel Coliseum is home to the Wake Forest men’s and women’s basketball teams and the site of past NCAA Tournament games.
“I’m ready for the experience, for sure,” Moser said.
The Warriors cut down the nets after the home finale, when they advanced one round deeper into the state playoffs than last year.
“That feels good,” Sykes said. “We got more work to do.”
