NW4A, SW4A, MECA 6 Conference Tourney Threads...

Freedom beats McDowell by 22. Don't have a final or any details.

 

Smelled that one coming from a mile away. Congrats to the Lady Pats.

 

Me to. It's hard to beat a good team 3 times in a row. Still a great season for the underdog lady titans. Many on this board picked them to finish 3rd or 4th in the league but come next fall we will have that NW4A final season Championship banner proudly hanging from the rafters of the Titan Dome.

 

It was good run..

We didn't get the outcome we all would have like but I just wanted to tell the Lady Titans congrats on a great season. When most doubted, you showed what heart is all about, you never gave up. When that last NW4A Conference Champions Banner hangs in the gym you'll know you were part of that....
You make us proud....

 

Great Win for Lady Pats!
You girls will always have the Final Conf. Tourney Championship of NW4A!!!!

All Tourney Team

Farmer-ACR
Moore-EB
Brooks-McD
Ward-McD
Connelly-FHS

MVP--Ali Ford 25 pts

 

Great game if your a patriots fan 2nt.Big win b4 playoff action begins.Freedom just seemed 2 execute a little better n the second half 2 pull away en route 2 the tourney trophy.c.c. n company really got involved n the second half 2 help ali get open looks which resulted n her 25 pts on the nt. along with mvp honors.tough loss 4 mcd. but u still had a great season along with the conf. championship!good luck n playoffs as i know the road will b tough throughout.represent the nw4a well n go SHOCK the world n beat butler!would love 2 play again down the road this year even tho thats not likely.GOOD LUCK again 2 the lady titans n lady pats n the first rd. of state playoff action. . .

 

SW4A

Butler - 53
East Meck - 52

Butler beats East Meck for the fourth time this season in a wildly entertaining game. Sylvia Hatchell - UNC Head Coach was in attendance.

Butler played fairly poorly and East Meck played fairly well. I think both coaches would agree that the officials had a very bad night.

Butler trailed early and got in foul trouble at the end of the first quarter when the foul count was 10 called on Butler and 2 called on East Meck. Watkins and Forney sat on the bench much of the first half for Butler and Celeste Stewart had her toughest shooting night of the season. Butler recovered to lead by 4 at halftime, with a great effort by Ceara Burdick and the reserves.

East Meck led by one with 1:02 left in the game. Butler got a basket by Burdick to take the lead, got a turnover and bucket by Watkins to lead by 3 with 7 seconds left in the game. The refs called a foul on Butler with .4 seconds left on the clock on a three point attempt. The East Meck freshman player made the first free throw, missed the second on a tough bounce and (for some reason) made the third. Butler wins by 1 point.

East Meck outplayed Butler tonight and deserved to win. But - I guess good teams find a way to win ugly sometimes.

East Meck's improvement from November is dramatic and they will be a tough out in the playoffs. The depth of Butler was tested tonight and proved up to the task.

 

Congratulations to Freedom on winning the tourney championship. I know there are a lot of excited players, coaches and parents in Morganton tonight...you deserve it.

I thought the game was decided late in the 2nd quarter. Ford got in foul trouble with the margin close, McDowell never was able to gain momentum from it. Freedom showed some killer instinct in the 2nd half. McDowell couldn't buy a basket for most the 2nd half, we got no 2nd chance points either until after the game was decided. This match up reminds me somewhat of the game at the Christmas Tourney, this time Freedom took care of business and slammed the door shut.


All that said...McDowell has no reason to hang their heads, they have had a good season in this final year of the Northwestern 4A. Good luck to both squads in the Sectionals.

Speaking of the NW4A I wanted to thank everyone down at East Burke for their host the final NW4A tourney. Everything was well organized IMO, the staff who were helping with the tourney, they're all great in assisting this week.

It didn't really hit me until about half way through the men's championship...I think people are gonna really underestimate just how big a hit the Freedom-McDowell rivalry is going to take.

The biggest thing to remember is that this isn't a geographical rivalry (i.e. two teams from the same city or county) but rather a rivalry (and programs) that have been built on being in the same conference and classification throughout the years. Unfortunately next year, neither of those cases will be true. Its pretty obvious we'll still play in a non-conference setting, but it's just not going to be even close to being the same and the question really lies, will it ever be the same ever again?

I know the rivalry is big for Freedom in terms to gates and other stuff but with the recent addition of two new schools with one of those inside the city of Morganton, you just have to wonder if things will slide more in the direction of Patton and Draughn because now (in the case of Patton) they can't avoid each other in terms of scheduling because Freedom and Patton will be in the same conference.

Meanwhile, who knows what McDowell might look like in 5 years? Technically we, as a county school system, are still on track to build another school at some point. So that leaves the possibility that we may have a 2nd high school by the time Freedom climbs back to the 4A classification.

 

Butler

By the way:

Congrats to the Butler Bulldogs for winning their 4th straight SW4A tournament championship. Coach Stephanie Butler has not lost a SW4A tournament playoff game during her 4 year tenure at Butler High School, including the year South Meck won the state championship.

 

Seems fitting that in the Last ever NW4A meeting these teams finish with 2-2, each with a Championship, since they have been at the top throughout it's existence!

FHS had probably it's best team effort of the year and actually showed some offensive patience at time that had been lacking.

Good crowd and fans were great!

Ford's 25 put her over 2400 for career, but i thought the faster tempo was the breaking point for McDowell- Gellman didn't seem to have the energy and work as effectively inside and I thought the pace had her tired. McD isn't use to playing from behind, Franklin called timeout w 30 sec left and circled his girls and I'm sure he was teaching and telling them to learn fom tonight and lets not be in this situation again--a good move!

Looking at playoffs both teams can get to the 3rd round at home--if they do Butler is a beast for McD but East Meck for FHs only lost by 1 to Butler last night!!!!

Good luck to Both in NCHSAA States! Take care of business the first 2 rounds!