At the end of a tragic week on campus, N.C. Central’s title offers a moment of joy
The music had been playing for a while, the crowd dancing in anticipation of the biggest game of N.C. Central’s basketball season, and then it came to a stop. The picture of a 20-year-old man appeared on the scoreboard and the hush was immediate, the face immediately and unfortunately recognizable.
So began a prolonged moment of silence at McDougald-McLendon Arena on Thursday in memory of Trevor VanDyke, the freshman football player from Clayton who was shot and killed Monday night. A few kids, unaware of the gravity of the moment, laughed in the stands, less a disruption than a welcome reminder of happier times in a suddenly somber building.
But the MEAC championship was up for grabs against North Carolina A&T in a rivalry that extends so far beyond basketball, and the show must go on.
What a show it was.
The celebrities were out for this one. N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts and a good chunk of the Duke basketball staff — Nate James, Chris Carrawell and Nolan Smith — occupied prime VIP spots on the baseline. Local high school coach Rasheed Wallace took an anonymous seat in general admission, above the N.C. Central parents. Mel Blount, father of N.C. Central star Jibri, was the only man in the building wearing a Stetson. Poobie Chapman and Jeremy Ingram, stars of the breakthrough 2014 team, watched from the corner.
N.C. Central fell behind by 13 in the first half, fought back to take a slim lead at halftime and finally pulled away in the final minutes, Jibri Blount’s dunk with 30 seconds to go the exclamation point on an 86-80 win, Blount hopping up and down in jubilation as his father watched impassively and the rest of the crowd spilled onto the sidelines in triumph.
Of the Eagles’ four MEAC regular-season titles, this may be the most improbable. N.C. Central lost its leading scorer early in the season, struggled through two months of guarantee games on the road to pay the bills and entered MEAC play with a 4-10 record. The previous three all won at least 25 games. This one would have to win the MEAC, the First Four and the Final Four to get to 25.
But there’s no less satisfaction in being in this position, especially given the twisted path it took to get here. The Eagles bucked the odds to get to the NCAA tournament the past two years, but they’ll go into Norfolk the favorite to make a fourth straight appearance, albeit almost certainly starting in Dayton again if they do.
If the program needed this win to keep up the standards LeVelle Moton has set, the entire university needed this win to keep up its spirits.
“We had an unfortunate accident that happened to a beautiful kid,” Moton said. “As a parent and a coach, you sob and you weep and you sit the kids down and let them know that it’s not about basketball. It puts everything into perspective. No one cares about championships when you’re going to your grave. No one talks about your MEAC titles in your eulogy.”
In the moment, though, it was exactly what everyone needed. An excuse to feel good again.
This is the way it’s supposed to work out, on this evening at the end of a tragic week on campus, is that a winner-take-all basketball game against a fierce rival becomes both a distraction and a reason for celebration.
Things don’t always go as planned. It’s nice when it does, a welcome moment of unrestrained joy for a campus that desperately needed one.
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 10:10 PM with the headline "At the end of a tragic week on campus, N.C. Central’s title offers a moment of joy."
