SILER CITY — Jason Messier could do little but smile after his Chatham Charter boys basketball team stunned everyone across the Tar Heel state on Saturday evening in Siler City with a 58-40 beat down of Hayesville in third round action of the 1A NCHSAA state playoffs.
And who could blame him, no one gave the Knights a chance against the top-seeded Yellow Jackets out of the Smokey Mountain Conference.
The excuses were many: Hayesville had drilled Chatham Charter deep in the mountains 68-55 a year ago, Chatham Charter hasn’t played anyone this season and the 1A Central Tar Heel Conference is weak, the Knights had no one to stop 6-foot-7 Jake Mctaggert, the most popular of many.
But in the end it was Messier’s troops that proved the naysayers wrong, again.
Much like the previous two playoff wins, Chatham Charter started fast and led from start to finish in improving to a gaudy 31-1 on the season while advancing to the 1A Western Regional semi-finals to battle powerful Lincoln Charter (27-2) who crushed Community School of Davidson on the same night. Chatham Charter and Lincoln Charter were scheduled to face off on Tuesday, March 3 over in Denver which is located in just off the shore of Lake Norman in northeastern Lincoln County.
For Messier, it’s the same ole story, just a different team in round four.
“Our team is really taking being overlooked to heart, they hear things, are told what is said on message boards, and I think it’s really made them determined and given them a lot of incentive to show that they have a really good basketball team,” Messier said. “Obviously we will be underdogs on the road, and should be, Lincoln Charter is the No. 1 seed and won a state title in recent years. But this group, the one thing I’m sure of is that they will go compete and play hard. That’s just what they do.
The defensive end is where Chatham Charter has excelled in the playoffs, and Saturday night was no exception as the Knights held Hayesville to 40 points after the Jackets entered scoring 77 per contest.
“Our guys have bought in to always playing defense, that’s something you can always do, even when your shots aren’t falling,” noted Messier. “We’ve really turned up the intensity in the playoffs, that has been the key.”
That showed early as the Knights held the Jackets to just five points in the opening period to go up 9-5 after one.
Chatham Charter erupted for 18 points in the second to pull in front 27-19 at the break. Trevor Golden had five points in the period while Jordan Hamilton added four and Ryan White a trey.
The smothering 2-3 zone by Chatham Charter did the rest by holding Hayesville to just 10 points in the third and 11 in the fourth. The Yellow Jackets had sliced the deficit to 43-29 entering the final stanza before the Knights erupted for 24 points to put the visitors from Clay County away.
“I thought for the most part we did a good job controlling Mctaggert including on the boards,” added Messier on the talented Hayesville center who’s expected to be one of the top tight end prospects in the nation in the 2022 class. “He closed with 15 points and 14 rebounds but we made him work for everything, especially Jordan and Trevor down low.”
Hayesville (25-4) also received 13 points from Hayden McClure.
A balanced Chatham Charter attack was paced by a game-high 18 points from Hamilton. The 6’5 senior also chipped in six rebounds, three assists and one steal.
Connor Murphy added a great game and was all over the court, collecting 12 points, four boards, two assists and five steals while Golden added 10 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and three steal in an outstanding performance. Rounding out the the scoring for the Knights was White and Cole Milholen six points each, Amir Mapp with four, and Clay Griffin with two. Milholen added two assists and a steal from the point and the senior turned the ball over just twice for the Knights who had 11 as a team and shot 54% (21-of-39) from the field.