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East Davidson made its wildest dreams come true, when the Lady Golden Eagles were able to outlast an athletic Graham Red Devil team to win 62-59, and claim its first ever NCHSAA 2-A state championship in basketball.
“This is a dream come true,” said an elated East head coach, Terry Allmon. “These ladies here stepped up when they had to.”
Behind a game-high 18 points from championship MVP Anna Freeman and 10 more from Western most-outstanding player Stacy Hicks, the Golden Eagles were able to keep the speedy Red Devils in tact, and never lost sight of them. East built a big lead in the third only to have it turn into a lead for Graham in the fourth, but key shooting and free throws made the difference when the game was on the line.
“It hasn’t quite sank in yet,” said Freeman. “After the past few years, we are all just excited to be smiling and not crying.” “We’ve been told all week that if we don’t win this one we have next year, but now we don’t have to wait to celebrate next year.”
Allmon was aware when junior’s Freeman, Alyssa Cutshaw and Elizabeth Merritt came out of eighth grade, they could produce something special. But there was a lot of work to be done to reach that point.
“I was telling these three the other day, I remember the first time we went to the weight room and they had just got out of the eighth grade and one of them could not even lift the bar,” joked Allmon. “They have come so far and we have dreamed about this for a long time.”
The trio had visions of a title back then, and now it is a reality.
“We told him when he came here that we were going to win him a state championship,” said Freeman. “I don’t know if anybody believed us at the time. We’ve been playing together since the sixth grade in AAU. It feels amazing.”
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Hopes of a championship started to hit home at the start of the second half, even with East trailing 30-27. The Golden Eagles used what has become a patented third quarter to blow games open, and they did that very thing for the third straight contest.
Freeman scored on a layup, Merritt connected on a jumper and Hicks drove the lane to suddenly make it 33-30 in favor of the black and gold. Baskets were traded over the next two minutes and change, until East went on a 6-0 run to build a 44-36 lead with the aforementioned trio doing the damage again.
With a firm grasp on the game and Freeman with three fouls, Allmon decided to sit her the final two minutes. It almost proved to be a costly mistake.
Graham closed on a 6-0 run for a 46-44 lead at the end of three, highlighted by a pair of 3s from Eastern most-outstanding player Kiki Allen.
Freeman re-entered the game in the fourth, but the Red Devils didn’t seem to care by reeling off six more points to take a 50-46 lead. Down but not out, East countered to retake the lead with 2:31 left on senior Dee Lanier’s layup on the right side.
“We worked ourselves into a little bit of a lead, and then we lost our focus a little bit,” said Allmon. “Then we got it back and finally started making a run. We bent some, but we didn’t break.”
That brought about one of the finest sequences of the year from Cutshaw after Allen missed a crucial front end of a 1-and-1 with the game deadlocked at 54-54.
Freeman brought the ball down the court and found her best friend in the corner beyond the arc. The southpaw fired from the left corner and drilled for the moment the biggest shot of her career.
“When it left my hand I was feeling good about it,” said Cutshaw.
Freeman had no worries about it.
“I knew she was going to make it.”
She proceeded to go down on the other end and play solid defense, coming up with a loose ball in a scrum near the sideline. Surrounded by Graham players and Freeman covering her, Cutshaw headily shouted to the official for a timeout which was granted.
“There was no way I was able to get it to anybody, so I was like timeout, timeout,” she said. “Thankfully the ref heard me.”
East was unable to capitalize on the next possession, but was able to burn valuable time off the clock.
A sight never wanted to be seen by Golden Eagle fans came moments later following a Graham basket and free throw from East sophomore Haley Grimsley.
Freeman went for a block on Courdne Miles, but caught a piece of the arm which resulted in her fifth foul with 27 seconds to play and East clinging to a 58-56 lead. Miles would miss both tries, resulting in a rebound for East and quick foul by Graham on Candace Fox. The sophomore calmly sank the double-bonus free throws for a 4-point lead with 18.8 seconds left to play.
Graham inbounded the ball and got it to Alison Cousin, who hoisted up a prayer well beyond the 3-point line and banked it in to get back within a point. East inbounded the ball to its best free throw shooter in Cutshaw, who was fouled and went to the line to make the first of two crucial free throws.
Now down by two and 11.4 seconds left to play, the Red Devils decided to go for the win with a 3. But Beth Miller’s try came up well short, and Cutshaw secured the ball. Back down to the other end, Cutshaw made the first try with 2.8 seconds left to extend the lead to three. Her second shot was long, but there was not enough time for Graham to get off a good look at the basket.
“Regardless of the fans and everything else, you just have to focus on the free throws and that is what I tried to do,” said Cutshaw.
Players and cheerleaders spilled out to the middle of the floor to celebrate, and one can’t help but look to next year and think that they could do it all over again with the entire starting five coming back.
“Sounds good, but let me enjoy tonight,” said Allmon when asked of a possible repeat.
Cutshaw wouldn’t mind being on top again as a senior.
“We could do it again, but we just have to work hard and keep our heads and not get big-headed about it.”
Freeman was living the dream first of all for getting to win a state championship, and secondly, because she got to do it at NC State. A longtime fan of the Wolfpack, she has dreamed of just playing on the floor of her favorite school. Little did she know that an added bonus to the day would be having Wolfpack women’s head coach Kay Yow in attendance to watch her performance.
“That’s exciting. I didn’t even know she was here,” said Freeman. “She is an amazing lady and inspirational in all aspects of life.”
While East was celebrating its biggest achievement in the history of the program, Graham was left sitting with tears in its eyes watching the state championship slip away for the second straight season.
“I told our girls that they should keep their heads high,” said Red Devils’ coach Kyle Ward. “They battled back, but we fell just a tad bit short.
“I think the players we have returning we can be back next year — maybe we’ll see them again.”
A leading factor in East claiming the title came from hard-nosed battler Hicks. Early in the first quarter she took a hit to the nose and left the game bleeding. But her fierce competitiveness could not keep her down. Looking like a fighter after a 10-round bout, she stuck her nose in the paint and hit big free throws when East was struggling, but her biggest points of the night came with 5:00 to be played in the game. Trailing 52-46, Freeman found her in the corner for a huge 3-pointer that triggered a 8-0 run that gave East the lead. Her efforts went unnoticed, as she garnered top game honors for the West.
“It was just a team effort — I had to do it for the team,” said Hicks. I said to myself ‘I’ve got to get back in the game and keep playing.”
East finished the season with a 27-4 record, and loses just two seniors in Lanier and Megan Byerly. Graham ended its season with a mark of 31-1, and will lose only three players.
Graham 14 16 14 15 — 59
E. Davidson 13 14 19 16 — 62
GRAHAM (59) — Allen 14, Miles 12, Cousin 11, Smith 10, Miller 8, Robinson 4.
E. DAVIDSON (62) — Freeman 18, Hicks 10, Merritt 9, Cutshaw 8, Grimsley 6, Byerly 5, Fox 4, Lanier 2.