{"id":156410,"date":"2026-03-07T21:43:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T21:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/156410\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T21:43:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T21:43:32","slug":"1-queens-grant-rides-to-its-first-boys-basketball-state-championship-over-3-south-stokes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/156410\/","title":{"rendered":"(1) Queens Grant rides to its first boys basketball state championship over (3) South Stokes"},"content":{"rendered":"

HICKORY, NC \u2014 Queens Grant, a charter school in Mint Hill, Mecklenburg County, is off to its first N.C. High School Athletic Association state championship game.<\/p>\n

The top-seeded Stallions downed 3-seed South Stokes in the 2A West regional final, 62-49.<\/p>\n

The game was a rematch of the fourth round of last year’s N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A West playoffs. Queens Grant won that game, 88-59.<\/p>\n

It was the second trip to regionals in the past three seasons for South Stokes. At regionals two years ago, the Sauras fell to another charter school, Corvian Community, 53-41.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s contest was the 37th completed game of the season for Queens Grant. The Stallions are allowed to get in extra non-conference games as the school does not sport a football team.<\/p>\n

Review our live brackets presented by Talk it Out NC to see past round results and state championship matchups:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Queens Grant led 14-7 at the end of the first quarter.<\/p>\n

To start the second quarter, a close shot by junior Cannon DeBerry and an and-one 3-pointer from sophomore Bobby Montgomery III gave the Stallions a 10-point lead at 19-9.<\/p>\n

3-pointers from South Stokes senior BJ Gray and junior Reid Tilley helped keep the Sauras in the gamne, but more outside shooting from Montgomery III and offensive activity by 6-foot-8 sophomore Chase Smith preserved the lead for the Stallions.<\/p>\n

The Stallions forced the Sauras into 13 turnovers in the first half. They led at the break, 28-17.<\/p>\n

After scoring 11 points in the first half, Queens Grant 6-foot-7 sophomore wing (insert weird up and down hand motions) Mekhi Allen scored six consecutive points out of the break. He capped off his personal run with an alley-oop finish to put the Stallions up, 36-17.<\/p>\n

Later, back-to-back Allen 3-pointers from the same keft corner put Queens Grant up 48-27. It was the largest lead of the game so far for the Stallions.<\/p>\n

Allen more than doubled his already impressive scoring total in the third. He led the game with 23 points heading into the final quarter.<\/p>\n

In the fourth quarter, a breakaway layup by Tilley trimmed the Queens Grant to 13 points, prompting a timeout called by Stallion head coach Joe Badgett.<\/p>\n

A couple of turnovers prevented the South Stokes comeback from fully materializing.<\/p>\n

Preston Scott and Allen finished out the game with transition baskets.<\/p>\n

Box Score1Q2Q3Q4QFSouth Stokes710122049Queens Grant1414201462Scoring<\/p>\n

South Stokes<\/p>\n

Reid Tilley – 11Ben Jaffe – 7Elijah Tyler – 6Josiah Cleghorn – 6Cooper Willard – 4Brady Clark – 4Kymani Brown – 4Jude Moorefield – 2<\/p>\n

Queens Grant<\/p>\n

Mekhi Allen – 29Preston Scott – 10Bobby Montgomery III – 9Chase Smith – 8Cannon DeBerry – 6Postgame Press Conferences<\/p>\n

South Stokes<\/p>\n

Check back soon<\/p>\n

Queens Grant<\/p>\n

Check back soon<\/p>\n

Here is the rest of the regional finals schedule:<\/p>\n

Here are some helpful resources to follow the rest of the NCHSAA basketball state playoffs:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HICKORY, NC \u2014 Queens Grant, a charter school in Mint Hill, Mecklenburg County, is off to its first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-156410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}