In the highly anticipated Queen City Athletic conference championship game, the North Mecklenburg Vikings knocked off their biggest rival Chambers, 65-59, to claim the title Friday.
This is win No. 501 for head coach Duane Lewis — but Lewis said he isn’t worried about his own accolades. He is thrilled for the kids and how far they have come this season being such a young team.
“I’m really proud of those kids,” Lewis said. “We lost nine guys off last year’s team. No one seems to talk about that. We lost nine guys and the only one who got any minutes last year was Isaiah Evans. Our team is very young and I am so proud of them.”
This group might be young, but one player who stepped up big for the Vikings in this game was junior guard Trey Maxwell.
The son of former NBA World Champion Vernon Maxwell, Trey Maxwell finished the game with 24 points, 19 of which came in the first half.
“This means a lot,” Maxwell said, “for me and my teammates. We work hard in practice and just come out here and do our thing. We handled a lot of adversity, and we are really good at handling things like that. We just have a good team and guys I love.”
The big storyline in these rivals’ last meeting was how well Cougar guard Marcus Brown did guarding North Meck’s 5-star forward Isaiah Evans.
That didn’t happen again.
Evans had 26 points, but still gave a lot of credit to Brown for making him work for it.
“I was just in the zone tonight,” Evans said. “Last game he had my number and this game I had his number. He is a good defender and there is respect both ways, this time I happened to come out on top. We just have to show respect to each other.”
This win will have state playoff seeding implications, likely giving North Meck the 2 or 3 seed while Chambers would likely get the 10 seed, according to coach Lewis. With that being said, these two teams could meet for a fourth time in just a week’s time.
“Here’s the thing, if we are 2 and Chambers is 10 we will be playing again next Friday,” coach Lewis said. “It was huge getting home court in the playoffs.”
THREE WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE
Isaiah Evans, North Meck: Evans did what Evans does best, and that is simply be the go-to guy for the Vikings. He hit big shots all game as well as critical free throws to ice the game away in the closing seconds.
“Isaiah is special,” coach Lewis said. “It is that simple, Isaiah is special.”
Trey Maxwell, North Meck: The junior guard couldn’t seem to miss in the first half, tallying five three point baskets in the first half alone. Despite being a bit under the weather lately and having missed a few games earlier in the season, Maxwell seems to be rounding into shape just in time for a playoff push.
Nick Dorn, Chambers: Dorn led the push in the second half for the Cougars as they were able to cut the Viking lead under five points late in the game. He hit a big three as well as a poster dunk to get the Cougar faithful on their feet and cheering on the comeback attempt.
What’s Next?
Both teams will await their seeding for the state playoffs which start next week.
PHOTOS: North Meck vs. Chambers
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