This is the 2026 The Daily News All-Area Boys\u2019 Basketball Team, which recognizes the area\u2019s best high school players from this past season. Coaches were able to nominate their own players for first, second or third team.<\/p>\n
FIRST TEAM<\/p>\n
Dominic Hall, East Duplin: The sophomore averaged 12.7 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.6 blocks, 1.1 steals and one assist per game to help the Panthers go 12-12 overall, end in a three-way tie for second in the East Central 3-A\/4-A Conference, win the league\u2019s tournament title and advance to the second round of the 4-A playoffs. Hall had 10 double-doubles. One of his best efforts came when he recorded 13 points, 15 rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks in a 64-60 ECC tournament final victory over Clinton.<\/p>\n
Zarion Hobbs, White Oak: The junior averaged 23.3 points, four rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.3 steals to lead the Vikings to an 18-7 overall record, second place in the Big Carolina 6-A\/7-A Conference at 7-3 and advance to the third round of the 6-A playoffs. He had 21 games with at least 20 points, including five with at least 30. Hobbs scored 36 in a 65-62 loss to Northside and scored 34 in a 70-57 victory over Richlands. Hobbs was second team last year.<\/p>\n
Dwight Hooker, Richlands: The junior averaged 16.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 3.9 steals in his first season with the Wildcats, who struggled to a winless season. Hooker scored 35 points in a 70-57 loss to White Oak and scored 26 points in an 86-53 loss to West Carteret.<\/p>\n
Connor May, Swansboro: The junior averaged 17.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.5 steals in his first season with the Pirates, who went 17-9 overall, shared the Coastal 5-A\/6-A Conference title at 9-3 and advanced to the second round of the 6-A playoffs. Despite missing seven games with an injury, May had 12 games where he scored at least 16 points. He scored a season-best 31 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in a 78-67 victory over Southwest.<\/p>\n
Kannon McBride, Croatan: The junior averaged 25.5 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.6 steals for the Cougars, who went 20-8 overall, 8-4 in the Coastal 5-A\/6-A Conference and reach the second round of the 5-A playoffs. McBride had 10 double-doubles. He scored a season-best 39 points along with seven rebounds in a 70-58 win over East Duplin and had three more efforts with 36 points. He is first team for the second consecutive season.<\/p>\n
Carlos Pagan, Southwest: The junior averaged 18.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.3 steals for the Stallions, who ended 11-14 overall and 6-4 in the East Central 3-A\/4-A Conference. Pagan had 22 games where he scored at least 12 points. His season-best came when he scored 37 in a 73-70 loss to Trask while he also scored 34 in a 66-56 win over East Duplin.<\/p>\n
SECOND TEAM<\/p>\n
Joaliel Caraballo, White Oak, Jr., 2 13.9 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 3.5 apg, 3.1 spg<\/p>\n
Reginald Gray, Northside, Soph., 12.9 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 2.2 apg<\/p>\n
Peyton Mayhew, Northside, Sr., 14.4 ppg, 2.9 apg, 2.7 rpg, 2.7 spg<\/p>\n
Maurice Thomas, Lejeune, Fr., 18.8 ppg, 10.9 rpg<\/p>\n
Matt Williams, Jacksonville, 12.6 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 1.3 spg<\/p>\n
Noah Wright, Dixon, Jr., 15.9 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 2.5 apg, 1.3 spg<\/p>\n
THIRD TEAM<\/p>\n
Isaac Baxter, White Oak, Jr., 7 ppg, 7.5 rpg<\/p>\n
Taelin Burney, Liberty Christian, Fr., 12.7 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 1.9 apg, 1.7 spg, 1.3 bpg<\/p>\n
Jaiden Cooper, Living Water Christian, Sr., 18.8 ppg, 11.7 rpg, 2.2 bpg, 1.7 apg, 1.5 spg<\/p>\n
Lorenzo Floyd, Swansboro, Sr., 10.3 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 2.7 apg, 1.5 spg<\/p>\n
Matthew Smoot, Northside, Jr., 10.3 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 1.3 spg<\/p>\n
Tyler Thorpe, Croatan, Sr., 8.2 ppg, 5 apg, 2.8 rpg, 1.4 spg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the 2026 The Daily News All-Area Boys\u2019 Basketball Team, which recognizes the area\u2019s best high school…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,110],"class_list":["post-208031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}