FARMVILLE — While Northwood’s Drake Powell didn’t disappoint, Farmville Central’s MJ Williams stole the show.
Williams shined even brighter than the Chargers’ North Carolina Tar Heels recruit, finishing with 36 points in a 77-70 victory for the Jaguars in a NCHSAA Class 2A boys’ basketball fourth-round matchup in front of an overflowing crowd at the Jaguar Den.
“Division I player,” Farmville Central coach Larry Williford said of his 5-foot-10 junior. “He’s a big-time player, no questions asked. He’s got the heart of a lion. He has no fear. He’s only a junior, he’s unbelievable and he does it every night.”
Farmville Central (29-1), the No. 1 seed in the East 2A bracket, advanced to face second-seeded Goldsboro, which beat Fairmont 63-56, in the East 2A final on Wednesday in Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem for a berth in the state 2A title game. This will be a rematch of the East 2A regional final from last season.
While Williams had eight points in a first quarter that finished in a 17-17 deadlock, he got hot in the second period. He went for 16 points by himself in a four-and-a-half-minute span — wrapping it up with a 30-footer with 1:11 to go — then drove the lane with 27 seconds to go and passed to Chris Rhodes for an assist on a wide-open 3-pointer in the corner to stake Farmville Central to a 44-33 lead at intermission.
Williams drained six 3-pointers and went for 24 points in the first half to go with four rebounds and three assists.
“My teammates got me great looks,” Williams said. “At the beginning of the game, most of the shots were wide-open off-paint touches, and they just told me to keep shooting, so I just kept shooting.”
Meanwhile, Powell — a 6-foot-6, 175-pound senior who leads the Chargers in points (17.7), rebounds (7.9), assists (4.5), steals (2.2) and blocked shots (1.2) per game — had just six first-half points and picked up two personal fouls, each on charges, as Farmville Central’s Alex Moye and Chris Rhodes took turns face-guarding him.
“We had a game plan of what we wanted to do with him,” Williford said of Powell. “We were trying to limit his ability to get in the paint, which is a tough, tough task. But I thought, for the most part, we did a pretty good job.”
But Powell got to the free-throw line in the third quarter. He sank all five of his attempts from the line, added a field goal and a dunk as Northwood closed to gap to 54-49 going into the fourth quarter.
“He’s going to Carolina,” Williford said. “He’s going to get his. We wanted to turn him into a jump-shooter. We did that for the most part. He got a couple times when he was in the lane on us, but a hell of a basketball player and a very good young man.”
In the opening minute of the final period, Powell drove baseline and finished with an up-and-under layup to trim Farmville Central’s lead to three. A minute later, Northwood’s Chad Graves finished a three-point play to make the score 57-54 with 6:05 remaining.
But Moye answered with a layup for the Jaguars, followed by a steal and layup by Rhodes and a 3-pointer by Tyler Whitehurst to build the lead back to 10.
The Chargers went into a zone which, combined with their collective height — Graves is 6-foot-8, along with Powell and 6-4 Cameron Fowler — made driving to the basket more difficult for Farmville Central, along with shifting Powell defensively against the much smaller Williams.
“We hit adversity in the third quarter and that slowed the game down,” Williford said. “I thought we were a tougher team in the fourth quarter. That’s all we preach is toughness, so very proud of our guys.”
Down the stretch, Northwood sent Farmville Central to the line to try to get back in it. But the Jaguars hit 11 of their 14 free throws in the fourth quarter to keep the Chargers at bay to sew up their 22nd consecutive victory..
Following a game earlier in the season, Williams was critical of himself after he finished 3-for-12 from the free-throw line. On Friday, he was 9-for-13 from the line, including 6-for-8 in the fourth quarter.
“I just give all that credit to the work we put in when nobody’s watching,” Williams said. “Three-for-12 — I told myself I could never do that again, so when I got to the line, I was just trying to focus and knock down the free throws.”
In addition to their work defensively on Powell, Rhodes had 11 points, while Moye pulled down eight rebounds against the taller Chargers to go with his six points. Hampton Evans chipped in 12 points.
Powell finished with 22 points and three steals.
“I feel like we did the best we could,” Williams said. “He’s a great player.”
Fowler added 14 points for Northwood, while Jake Leighton had 13 points and seven rebounds, and Fred Whitaker Jr. chipped in 10 points.
Up next for Farmville Central is a date in the East 2A final against Goldsboro. The Jaguars have won four of the last five state 2A titles and have reached the title game in each of the last five seasons.
“It never gets old,” Williams said. “It’s always a big-pressure game. This team always lives up to the moment, and we’re always great at preparing for the moment. So we’ll go into it and play as hard as we can.”
Northwood coach Matt Brown declined to comment after the game as the Chargers had their 15-game winning streak snapped.
Northwood finished the season with a 27-4 record.
2A girls
North Pitt 67, West Craven 30
The West Craven girls’ basketball team will have a tough time forgetting about the North Pitt Panthers.
The top-seeded Panthers ran past the Eagles for a fourth time this season, accounting for West Craven’s only four losses this season. That included both regular-season meetings between the teams in battles for first place in the Eastern Plains 2A Conference, the EPC tournament title game and now the fourth round of the state playoffs.
The 37-point rout was not the biggest margin of victory in those four wins, but it did vault the Panthers (27-3) into the state semifinal round next Wednesday against No. 3 Seaforth, which dispatched upstart No. 15 Saint Pauls 66-48 on Friday night.
It marked the 20th consecutive victory for North Pitt, which lost consecutive games to Morris Catholic (N.J.) and South Central on Dec. 30 and Jan. 3, respectively. The Panthers’ only other loss was to 3A state semifinalist Terry Sanford, which is set to take on South Central in the East Final.
Freshman Jordan Speller sparked her team with 25 points, while senior Zamareya Jones added 19 and classmate Kenae Edwards 15 in the win.
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