The East Burke girls basketball team reached the NCHSAA 2A West Regional final for the third straight season, but a state championship must wait for now.
The No. 2 West seed Lady Cavaliers (30-2) couldn’t keep pace with No. 1 West seed North Wilkes (30-1) in Thursday’s contest, falling 60-36 at Wake Forest University’s Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The victory advanced the Lady Vikings to Saturday’s NCHSAA 2A state championship game at LJVM against Southeast Alamance (28-3), which advanced through the East bracket as the No. 12 seed.
Here are the numbers to know from Thursday’s contest:
0:00 — East Burke’s time with the lead. The Lady Cavaliers forced three early ties and trailed by just one point, 15-14, after Addison Sisk made a basket 19 seconds into the second quarter. East Burke didn’t score again in the first half, however, and trailed 33-14 at halftime and stayed behind for the remainder of the contest.
3:53 — Amount of time neither team scored to start the fourth quarter. With the Lady Cavaliers in desperation come-from-behind mode, the offenses of both teams struggled to start the fourth quarter. East Burke trailed 48-31 at the end of the third period and was down 51-31 with 3:23 left to play.
4:10 — Time remaining when East Burke senior Braelyn Stilwell fouled out. The superstar of the Lady Cavaliers’ three consecutive regional finalist teams and the school’s all-time leading scorer in basketball scored 10 points before heading to the bench for the final few minutes. Stilwell also tallied five rebounds, three steals and an assist.
17 — Game-high rebounds by North Wilkes’ Shalyn Bare. Bare finished with nine points and made her biggest impact on the defensive boards, grabbing 16 on that end for the Lady Vikings. Her performance limited East Burke’s second-chance opportunity and fed the transition offense of North Wilkes.
18 — Points scored by East Burke junior Kara Brinkley. The total was a team-high as Brinkley finished with a double-double, also tallying 11 rebounds. Nine of her boards were on the defensive end. Brinkley also had two assists, two steals and two blocks.
21 — Game-high points scored by North Wilkes player Meredith Tomko. She was one of three Lady Vikings to finish in double figures along with Ralee Bare (13 points) and KayKay Kinder (10).
23.1% — East Burke’s shooting percentage. The Lady Cavaliers’ offense never really got going and they only knocked down 12 of 52 shots while the Lady Vikings shot 42.6% (20 of 47). East Burke was just 6 of 32 (18.8%) from beyond the arc, though the Lady Cavaliers did hit 6 of 6 free throws.
24 — Points in the paint for North Wilkes. The Lady Vikings were dominant down low, led by 6-2 Shalyn Bare, 6-0 Allie Farrington and 5-10 Ralee Bare. East Burke had 10 points in the paint.