North Lincoln vs. Southeast Alamance: 5A Championship

With the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) increasing its classification number from four to eight, this meant twice as many state champions per sport.    An example of this would be in the newly established 5A classification. One of the teams in said classification would be Southeast Alamance which won 2A state last season in only its second season as a program. This season's Stallions claimed the East Regional title after wins over St. Pauls, C.B. Aycock, Eastern Alamance and Rocky Mount.    One would be hard-pressed to find a team that has had a more interesting road to the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum than North Lincoln. An eligibility issue forced the team to forfeit 17 games then the Knights had to earn a win at Bandys to earn a spot in the 5A bracket. Since then, North Lincoln has defeated Hunter Huss, West Rowan, Northwest Cabarrus and Forest Hills to claim its state date.    Winning 5A state would be the Knights by virtue of its 59-56 victory over the Stallions in what can be considered one of the signature games of championship week.    We at Prep Girls Hoops were on hand at the Wake Forest campus for the festivities. Here is who came through under the bright championship lights for their respective teams on the final day of championship week.     Every point and every play mattered in such an evenly-matched contest – and the 16 points that were placed on the scoreboard by the Knights' star junior was no exception. Smith's stellar performance earned her team the 5A state title and herself West Most Outstanding Player recognition. She would play all 32 minutes and also grabbed seven rebounds – including four on the offensive glass. Smith was as much a facilitator as she was a scorer as evidenced by the seven rebounds she dished out. She also collected five steals and rejected a pair of shots. Smith is one of seven juniors on this season's team.      Cipriano not only lifted her North Lincoln bunch to the victory on Saturday afternoon but also added Kay Yow Most Valuable Player honors to boot. Cipriano would conclude her afternoon with a 15-point performance that also saw her grab five rebounds. One of only two sophomores on this season's Knights team, her performance also included three steals as well as a pair of rebounds. What got Cipriano MVP honors was connecting on the two most important buckets of the game. With the contest tied at 56, Cipriano was true on two free throw tries to put a "Lyd" on Saturday's state get-together.     She was another from the starting five for North Lincoln that gave her team solid minutes.  She would play nearly 20 minutes and added 10 points to the Knights' total. Black also grabbed seven rebounds in a contest where the rebounding was virtually even between Knights and Stallions. Black may have fouled out in the fourth quarter, but she was one that Southeast Alamance did not want to foul considering she was true on all four of her attempts from the charity stripe. Black is another of the seven juniors on this year's North Lincoln team and her ability to play either the two or the three means she can be effective from the wing.      Burch's sneakers made contact with the Wake Forest court for nearly 30 minutes. The eight points placed on the scoreboard by Burch also went a long way in ensuring victory for North Lincoln. Saturday's game brought to a close Burch's freshman season with the Knights and one can ensure she will be even more of a featured player as she continues to amass more experience at the high school level. Burch tallying six of her eight points in the second half is emblematic of how she has established herself as one of North Carolina's top 2029s. She is the lone freshman for this season's state-winning Knights.       The end result for Paylor and her Southeast Alamance assembling may have been different from last season when the Stallions prevailed over North Wilkes. Paylor can still be proud of the 23 points and the East Most Outstanding Player honors she departed from Wake Forest with. Paylor's performance also included eight rebounds, six steals and a pair of assists in addition to playing all 32 minutes. As a veteran point guard, attacking the rim is her bread and butter. One can set up the best defensive scheme to prevent her from scoring a pair of points and Paylor will still slice and dice through said defense.      Southeast Alamance's star senior guard had plenty of help in the backcourt courtesy of one of the Stallions' 2028 backcourt beasts. Johnson would log over 29 minutes of time on Wake Forest's court and concluded her day with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds. Johnson especially came through in the clutch for the Stallions as six of her 10 points and nine of her 10 rebounds occurred in the third and fourth quarters. Two of the three steals Johnson collected on Saturday also occurred in the contest's closing 16 minutes. She is one of the two sophomores on this season's Southeast Alamance roster.      McIver also ensured from start to finish that the Stallions had a chance of departing from The Joel with state hardware for the second consecutive season. McIver would add seven points and five rebounds to Southeast Alamance's total. Four of McIver's boards would be of the offensive variety and her work on the offensive glass helped the Stallions earn a 22-11 edge over North Lincoln in that category. McIver's performance also included one steal and one blocked shot. Saturday afternoon's matchup in Winston-Salem was the final occasion for Mciver in Stallions blue and orange as she is one of the team's seven 2026s.      LaChapelle, a frontcourt force, is another of those seven seniors. While McIver may not have put a crooked number up for Southeast Alamance on the scoreboard, she greatly helped the Stallions' efforts on the glass with nine rebounds. LaChapelle was particularly effective in limiting North Lincoln's second-chance point opportunities with said rebounding prowess. She was also one that the Knights did not want to foul and place at the free throw line as LaChapelle was true on four of her six tries at the stripe. At 5-foot-10, one would expect LaChapelle to be on the winning end of many battles on the boards. Seven of those nine rebounds would happen prior to halftime.

With the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) increasing its classification number from four to eight, this meant twice as many state champions per sport.