WINSTON-SALEM — Despite junior Cam Fowler leading all scorers with 27 points and a solid defensive showing in the first half, the state crown maintained its elusiveness for the Northwood boys’ basketball team Saturday.
In front of a packed lower bowl for the high school basketball finale at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Northwood got outscored 21-10 in the third quarter and fell to Reidsville 71-54 in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 2A state championship game.
The Rams, who capped off their year with a 31-0 record and 60 straight wins since the start of the 2023-24 season, won their second consecutive 2A state title. Northwood, ending the year with a 30-3 record, finished as the state runner up for the third time in the past five seasons.
“As you saw on the court, they did not give up,” Northwood coach Matt Brown said. “They fought till the very, very end, and I’m ok with that. I’m ok with leaving it on the court, and I know it stinks right now. I know it hurts. But they’re going to be better people for it in the long run.”
Northwood didn’t shoot well the entire night, hitting shots at just a 36% clip, however, the Chargers also made it hard for Reidsville to get into an early offensive groove.
Starting in its stifling 1-3-1 zone, Northwood limited inside touches and forced the Rams into tougher outside shots. Reidsville shot 25% from the floor (1-for-8 from three) in the first quarter. For the entire first half, Northwood held junior Dionte Neal (Reidsville’s leading scorer), who finished the night as the Rams’ Most Outstanding Player with a team-high 24 points, to just three points.
“I thought we were containing him really well on any type of penetration,” Brown said. “That was our game plan to not let him get as many paint touches as possible, and I thought we did a really good job in the first half.”
But limiting Neal’s impact only did so much, considering the Chargers couldn’t keep junior forward Chad Graves on the floor to contain Reidsville junior Kendre Harrison, a 5-star Oregon commit and the No. 1 tight end in the country.
Graves, the 6-foot-9 rim protector, picked up three fouls in the first half, resulting in a tough task for Graves’ replacement Camden Miller as Harrison anchored the Rams with 10 first half points. Graves eventually fouled out in the fourth quarter.
“It hurt,” Brown said about Graves’ foul trouble. “It definitely hurt, but I thought Camden Miller did a great job coming off the bench and really just giving us an extra boost.”
Said Brown, “It was unfortunate for Chad. I thought he played really hard. He was trying to battle Kendre, which is a hard task, but I’m proud of Chad.”
Thanks to two early threes from senior Beau Harvey and a gritty eight-point second quarter from Fowler, the Chargers only trailed 23-20 at the half.
“We just had to keep fighting and doing what we were doing,” senior Isaiah Blair said. “At halftime, we were telling each other that we had to keep containing everybody like we were and keep hitting shots.”
However, Reidsville wasted no time finding its offensive rhythm coming out of the break. The Rams started the second half on a 7-0 run, and Neal started to heat up in transition. At the same time, Northwood suffered its worst shooting quarter of the game, going 2-for-9 from the field and 0-for-3 from beyond the arc.
“The shots didn’t fall,” Brown said. “They had a couple of turnovers, and that led to run outs which we wanted to limit as much as possible. I thought we did a good job with that throughout the game. Just that little run.”
Northwood entered the fourth quarter trailing 44-30, and although Reidsville held all the momentum, the Chargers continued to fight.
In fact, the game somewhat turned into a Neal and Fowler duel. Neal continued his big night in transition with layups and free throws, tallying 15 points in the final period. Meanwhile, Fowler continued to attack the rim as he tried to will Northwood back into the game with 14 fourth quarter points.
Despite the standout performance from Neal, Reidsville senior Johnniyus Sharpe was named the game’s Most Valuable Player with 18 points (11 in the second half).
Even with the disappointing finish, Northwood has plenty of positives to take away from this season. In the first year since the graduation of former 5-star Drake Powell, the Chargers maintained their dominance in the Mid-Carolina 1A/2A conference with a 16-0 regular season conference record. They entered the state championship game on a season-best 19-game win streak and picked up some impressive wins along the way, including double-digit victories over South Granville, Southwest Onslow and West Bladen in the playoffs.
Northwood will graduate four seniors, including Hayes Burleson, Jaylen Scurlock, Blair and Harvey. In two seasons together on the varsity level, that group went 57-7 overall and 32-0 in regular season conference play.
“I couldn’t be more proud of these guys and the senior leadership that we had,” Brown said. “This journey was fantastic. I was just along for the ride.”