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North Pitt Ladies Basketball Team Defies Adversity, Wins State Championship

WITN-TV

As March Madness rages for the national, collegiate championship, 8 high school teams along Tobacco Road were crowned state champions earlier this month.

Two of those in Pitt County.

In the men’s brackets, Farmville Central capped a perfect season by beating East Lincoln High School 81-71 for the 2A crown.  

On the women’s side, North Pitt High School of Bethel clinched a narrow victory against East Davidson High School in Thomasville, also in the 2A division.

It was A BIG WIN, a first state championship for the women’s team in 44 seasons, and as Chris Thomas reports, it didn’t come easily.

He caught up with the team on their home court while gym class was in session.

As is the case with many championship teams, the story of the 2015-2016 North Pitt Panthers’ Ladies Basketball team doesn’t start with the first game of the season.

Sarah Searsy, a senior guard for the Panthers.

“So, last year, in the ’14-’15 season, we went to the regional finals and had a devastating loss to Kinston.”

After putting together a perfect regular season, the team came up a game short in the championship tournament – losing to the Kinston Vikings, 63 to 52, at Crown Arena in Fayetteville.

But, Searsy believed the next year would be different.

“I expected to go on to Chapel Hill and I expected bringing home the win.”

Searsy expectations were well founded.

The team got off to a 10-game winning streak, allowing an average of 24 points, including a near shutout against South Creek of Robersonville – 67-4.

Yolanda Bowden was the team’s assistant coach at the time.

“From the beginning of the season, they really had their minds focused, they really had a goal in mind to go all the way to the championship and they definitely executed that.”

A 56-44 loss to Winston-Salem Prep proved to be a quick hiccup on their way to a, seemingly, smooth path to the state championship game.

But during a February 12th contest game against Farmville Central, toward the end of the season, the Panthers were nearly disqualified from the playoffs altogether.

A fight broke out between players and fans with less than 4 minutes left in the match. Charges were filed, then-head Coach Neal Carr was barred from team activities for a year, and two North Pitt players were suspended for four games.

Bowden, who became the interim head coach, said the team faced an important decision.

“When you have trials and tribulations that arise, it brings you closer together. It’s either going to make you or break you, and they chose for this to make them. They chose to swim instead of to sink.”

The Panthers swam through the state championship bracket with relative ease, winning their games, on average, by a 16 point margin leading up to the state championship match.

The Panthers made it to Chapel Hill.

Senior Forward Quadramec Moore, a forward for the team, reflected on what that game – her last as a North Pitt Panther – meant to her.

“It was nerve wracking but it was also sort of bittersweet because…we did go to the regional finals last year and we did lose…and making it to the state championship, we had to give it our all, put everything on the court, and just remember that this was our last game to play, it was either go hard or go home.”

Unlike their regular season, North Pitt had a tough first half in their championship game. They lost their slim, first quarter lead by halftime after going cold from the field – making only two shots.

Meanwhile, the East Davidson Golden Eagles sank outside shots at will, scoring 21 points in the second quarter.

Bowden knew this would be a challenge going into the ball game.

“Yes, they really were a team that shot on the outside. That’s when they got their biggest lead was from the three-point shots from the perimeter.”

The Panthers made the adjustments they needed before the second half, reasserting themselves in the paint.

The fourth quarter was tight – it had three lead changes and tied twice – but a heads up play by senior TyQuisha Gainer, who stole an inbounds pass, made a layup, and was fouled along the way – gave the Panthers a 3 point lead with less than 7 seconds left.

Casandra Watson, a freshman, witnessed the play as it unfolded.

“It was like in slow motion…you couldn’t really get a grasp of it, it just…it’s something that you couldn’t believe.”

Another defensive play, a steal by junior Ta’Shada Joseph, sealed East Davidson’s fate and put a cap on an improbable championship season for the North Pitt Panthers.

For Joseph, the final buzzer was the sound of deliverance. 

“And it felt like weights lifted off my back and I say that because I felt like I’m the teammate that holds my team together and keep things under control. So, when that buzzer finally buzzed, I felt like – ‘we did it. I did it.’”

Members of the team say they came together, like a family, this season and returned to Bethel with the school’s first Women’s Basketball Championship since 1972 – two years after its founding.  

When I interviewed Bowden, her team was lined up, sitting on a bench, in their uniforms. It looked like they were preparing for a pre-game pep talk.

I asked her what went through her mind as she looked at this championship team and the individual, young women that made this season possible.

“This right here is just a beautiful story and a testament to even encourage other people – encourage, not only themselves, but this school, this community, this region, just to know that you can do anything you set your mind to.”

Some audio used for this story came from The Daily Reflector of Greenville.

I’m Chris Thomas