Northside finishes 30-0 and claims the State 2A Chip
It’s been a long time for the Onslow County area, since they have been able to call a boys basketball team, in fact I’ve been told that it’s been over 70 years. Well on this past Saturday night the drought was broken as Northside HS defeated North Surry to claim the NCHSAA State championship on the campus of NC State. We know how the Monarchs reached the state championship so there is no need for us to recap every single game they played this year but the way they won each game is just as impressive as them being champs. Throughout the entire state tournament, Northside beat every team they played by at least 19 Points, let that sink in for a moment. Schools like Clinton HS and Greene Central that had only lost one game would still go down in defeat to Northside HS., the regular season was pretty much the same as they blew out just about every team besides Clinton HS who they would beat by 8 on the road.
What made them great?
What made Northside so dangerous this season was the amount of weapons that they had at their disposal, the main scorers were players we have known before but the role players that stepped up were huge for the Monarchs. Hobbs averaged 19 PPG, while Dye averaged 12 PPG, which is already a very could combination, but then we must add the role players. Wing Gabe Kirkendoll averaged 10.8 PPG, Forward Demetrius Jones averaged about 8PPG with a nice amount of rebounds as well, with the Forward Jason Mixon rounding out the group with 6.2 PPG. Many times we see teams that are in smaller divisions, don’t have the depth, they rely on one or two players to carry the load. With Northside they caused opponents nightmares not only by balanced offensive scoring but also by their ability to apply constant defensive pressure throughout games. Huge congrats goes to the Northside Monarchs as they finished the season 30-0, the city of Jacksonville and Onslow County can now say they have a State Champ.