Sports Editor
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| The Cougars celebrate their tournament victory over Millbrook |
As
the final buzzer of the North Carolina Class 4A State Championship sounds, the
Apex men’s basketball team’s excitement finally boils over. Senior guard T.J.
Evans sprints across the court, leaping up and pounding his fist with
exuberance. He eventually finds his way to Head Coach David Neal, and before
long the state champs are gathered in triumphant embrace around their coach,
right in front of the hundreds of rejoicing Cougar Crazies. The scene is one of
overwhelming exhilaration, an outpouring of emotion from a team that never gave
up hope, one that always knew they were the team to beat. “It took a moment to
register, but once it hit I felt overwhelming joy, excitement, and pride. I was
overwhelmed with the love of the Apex community and fans and the outpouring of
support from them,” described assistant coach Isaac Bristol.
Evans
breaks off from the pit of teammates and grabs his head, letting the moment
sink in. “I was just very excited, it’s indescribable really. I was just
overwhelmed with excitement,” he says. The MVP of the tournament points to the
sky as the magnitude of the accomplishment sinks in. “It’s a blessing. I’m
blessed,” he reflects.
In
mid-December, Apex’s record stood at a pedestrian 2-4. Nobody could have
predicted that four months later they would be state champions, nobody except
themselves. “We knew we had a very talented squad. What a lot of people don’t
realize is that we played a very tough early season schedule and that really
prepared us for the long haul,” said coach Bristol. On the road to the
championship, Apex had to get through both Clayton and Millbrook, two teams
they played in the first six games of the season. “Beating Clayton by double
digits at their home court was a confidence booster. It took time for
everything to gel, and we really got going when we hit conference play.” The
Cougars went an impressive 13-1 during conference play, giving them the
momentum they needed to make a run in the tournament.
After
dismantling Riverside and E.E. Smith in the first two round of the tournament,
the Cougars were staring into the face of Northern Durham, the number two seed
in the East side of the bracket. “After we won our first two games in the
regionals, it gave us the momentum, the confidence, and a mindset of ‘we can do
this,’” Evans said. Seventh-seeded Apex trailed by one with 12 seconds
remaining, and it was at that moment that the magic started. Evans took the
ball up the floor, lost control, and eventually the ball ended up in the hands
of senior forward Majid Raji. Raji, a defensive stalwart, drained the mid range
shot just as the buzzer sounded, invoking a court-rushing celebration from his
teammates. But the fun was just beginning.
In
the next round, Apex would once again play the role of underdog against
Clayton. Trailing by two with under a minute to go, Evans would calmly knock
down a jumper, sending the game into overtime. After beating Clayton easily in
the beginning of the season, the Cougars were more than prepared for the
pressure of overtime. “All year
long we’ve been saying ‘we’ve been here.’ Expect to win is a major theme with
this team,” said Coach Bristol. Led by sophomore guard Ian Boyd, who dropped 26
points to go along with his 10 rebounds in the game, Apex pushed Clayton aside
in overtime, going on to win 79-75.
In the
semifinal against Millbrook, Apex was once again led by the tenacious trio of
Evans, Boyd and senior point guard T.J. Wells. Earlier in the season, Millbrook
had tossed Apex aside in a 60-37 embarrassment. But this time, Apex had the
momentum and the world-beating attitude to handle the Wildcats. Said Coach
Bristol, “we just kept on saying “we’ve been here guys.” Led by 22 points from
Evans and 12 from junior forward John Kitoko, the Cougars clamped down during
the game’s final minutes and won 63-57.
There
was just one last obstacle standing between Apex and the school’s first ever
men’s basketball state championship: Lake Norman. It was a mismatch on paper;
Lake Norman had a better record and a huge size advantage over the Cougars. Coach
Bristol described the Cougars’ game plan as a quick attack designed to wear out
the big Lake Norman guys. “We knew perimeter defense would be huge, we felt all
year that we had to run in transition to just outlast teams and beat them in
the third and fourth quarters. We asked, can they [Lake Norman] withstand the
consistent pressure of our running?” Apex stuck to the plan, and despite
trailing by seven at halftime, they weren’t worried. They had been here before.
They knew that Lake Norman would come out tired in the second half, worn down
from trying to defend Apex’s transition offense. When Evans hit the game
clinching free throw with five seconds remaining on the clock, all of Reynolds
Coliseum knew it was over. A steady cheer grew louder from the Apex student
section, and when the season’s final buzzer finally sounded, Apex’s incredible
run to a state championship was complete.
Boyd
stepped up in a huge way, posting 25 points and eight rebounds in the
championship to go along with 22 points and nine rebounds from Evans. Coach
Bristol commended Boyd’s performance, saying, “he rose to the occasion on a
huge stage. He went above and beyond what we asked him to do, and he guarded
their best guy all game.”
Apex
finally has its long-sought state championship. The 2013-2014 season will be
remembered as the one in which the Cougars believed in themselves no matter the
odds, and rose to the occasion on North Carolina high school basketball’s
biggest stage. As the players and coaches accepted their accolades on center
court, for the first time not a single person was able to say, “we’ve been
here.”
