LUMBERTON — The Lumberton High School boys basketball team reached new heights this season, reaching the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 4A state championship game for the first time.
Wednesday night, that story was told to a national audience.
ESPN’s “SportsCenter” featured the Pirates as part of its “#SeniorNight” segment in which it honors athletes whose seasons were cut short by the stoppage of sports nationwide due to the spread of COVID-19.
“The Lumberton basketball team in North Carolina — they’ve been through a lot during their four years, a couple of hurricanes,” anchor Scott Van Pelt said. “The Pirates of Lumberton were going to play for the 4A title for the first time ever down at the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill. The game has been postponed, not canceled yet, so maybe their seniors, and there are a bunch of them — Jordan McNeill, Michael Todd, Dwayne Davis, Shaleek Baker, Jamel Alford and Tyler Maidene — maybe they’ll get one last run. If they don’t, it was still a hell of a run.”
The team was excited to get some positive recognition after the heartbreak of the state championship’s postponement.
“That’s big time,” McNeill said. “Not too many high school teams got that last night as I was looking on the TV, so it’s really a blessing.”
“I hate that our season has potentially ended the way it has,” Lumberton coach Bryant Edwards said. “But hopefully we gave our community a sense of hope, and a sense of this is only the beginning of what could happen for our school.”
The segment included video clips from the Pirates’ 66-47 East Regional final victory over Pinecrest on March 7, including junior Charlie Miller’s half-court shot at the halftime buzzer, as well as postgame celebration shots.
“It was really cool to relive that moment, and just to see my shot on that type of stage,” Miller said. “It was pretty amazing.”
Van Pelt highlighted not just the team’s success on the court, but what the senior class has overcome over the last four years.
“It was very meaningful after all we’ve been through, through hurricanes and everything, and everything that’s going on right now, it’s cool to see a positive through all of that,” Miller said.
“Luckily, everybody didn’t fade away and we just brought back something good that wasn’t negative,” McNeill said. “We made a big run, and I know everybody was sad about the state championship game, but we made the biggest run in Lumberton history, so I’m proud about that. We really showed off for The L.”
Lumberton assistant coach Smiley Porter was the driving force behind nominating the team for the segment, which is airing nightly during this period in which the highlight-based program has no current highlights to air.
“He took the bull by the horns, and he blew Scott Van Pelt up (on Twitter), and he had the whole community retweeting this and this,” Edwards said. “It’s really good our guys got that recognition for sure.”
The segment can be seen here.
