Tigers, Norris still eager for 2nd title

It’s been 32 years since Coach Sherry Norris delivered a state basketball championship at Chapel Hill High School.

For Charlotte’s Harding University High School coach Anthony Jones, it’s been more like the blink of an eye.

Both coaches have been there and done that, with Jones’ Lady Rams winning the 3-A title a year ago, while Norris’ Tigers won it all in 1981.

Chapel Hill (30-1) and Harding (23-4) will play for the whole shebang at N.C. State’s Reynolds Coliseum on Saturday (5 p.m., Time Warner Cable 520).

Norris, 60, has knocked off a bunch of teams from the early 1980s to this millennium. She has 511 career victories, and No. 512 would be pretty sweet, to say the least.

“This is what you play for,” N.C. High School Athletic Association Commissioner Davis Whitfield told Norris, Jones and the other coaches assembled Monday morning at the Radisson Research Triangle Park hotel during a news conference promoting Saturday’s 2013 state championship games. “That is why you have those early morning workouts.”

When it was Norris’ turn to accept her plaque and commemorative basketball for making it to the finals, she said she didn’t take time to really appreciate the moment three decades ago, but it would be different this time.

Truly enjoying it all, though, must include being the last team standing, Norris said.

“If you come this far, why not win it?” Norris offered. “That’s what I tell my girls. We’ve worked this hard, and people always talk about (how) I’ve won two state championships in volleyball, and they don’t ever talk about the one we lost.”

Norris came up short playing for a volleyball title in the same Raleigh arena where her basketball team will deal with a Harding squad that likes to push the ball up the floor as fast as the Tigers do.

“We know about the Chapel Hill program,” Jones said. “From what I gather, Chapel Hill does have a great transition game.”

The Tigers have chased teams out of gyms, but the Rams also have been doing the same thing since November and aren’t about to change now, Jones said.

“We’re going to play our ball,” Jones said. “Our ball is pressure defense. Our ball is hand-in-the-face-on-the-shot. Our ball is we like to get it out and run. … If they run, it’s going to come down to who’s in better condition.”

Norris is anticipating an up-tempo matchup and said the Tigers can’t panic like some of them did in the last game when Vanceboro West Craven turned up the pressure on defense in the Eastern Region 3-A title game.

There are no ifs, buts or maybes about it, the Tigers had better know that the Rams are going to bring it on defense, Jones said.

“If the referee has the ball, we’re going to press him,” Jones said. “If the scorekeeper’s got the ball, we’re going to be watching the ball.”

Last game: Saturday, March 9

NCHSAA 3-A Eastern Regional Championship Recap

Chapel Hill 59, West Craven 51

WEST CRAVEN — Jamie Cherry 5-16 2-9 22; Jasmine Raynor 1-6 1-2 4; Nishedra Brown 5-11 0-0 10; Kaylee Koerperich 5-9 3-5 13; Nyeesha Roundtree 1-6 0-4 2; Rendi Wetherington 0-0 0-0 0; J’Miaya Wright 0-0 0-0 0; Attalia Dixon 0-0 0-0 0. Team totals—FG 17-48 (35.4 percent), FT 14-21 (66.7 percent), 3-point FG 3-11 (27.3 percent)

CHAPEL HILL — Tamia Eatmon 2-3 1-2 5; Jessica Wall 4-12 4-5 14; Catherine Romaine 7-16 1-1 15; Jamella Smith 5-13 0-0 13; Autumn West 0-3 1-2 1; Laura Musalem 0-1 0-0 0; Arianne Jacobs 0-1 0-0 0; Katie Guthmiller 0-1 0-0 0; Mariah Jacobs 0-1 0-0 0; Raziyah Farrington 5-8 0-0 11; Jasmine Suitt 0-0 0-0 0. Team totals—FG 23-59 (39 percent), FT 7-10 (70 percent), 3-point FG 6-16 (37.5 percent).

West Craven 11 9 17 14—51
Chapel Hill 10 14 24 11—59

3-point FG—West Craven 3-11 (Cherry 2-9, Raynor 1-2), Chapel Hill 6-16 (Smith 3-7, Wall 2-7, Farrington 1-2). Rebounds—West Craven 40 (Koerperich 15), Chapel Hill 34 (Romaine 11). Blocked shots—West Craven 1 (Koerperich), Chapel Hill 3 (Romaine 2, Farrington). Assists—West Craven 8 (Cherry 3, Raynor 3), Chapel Hill 14 (Eatmon 6). Steals—West Craven 8 (Brown 3), Chapel Hill 9 (Romaine 3). Turnovers—West Craven 18 (Raynor 7), Chapel Hill 11 (Farrington 2, Wall 2, Romaine 2).
Records—West Craven 26-6, Chapel Hill 29-1