![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/nchsaa-centered-DMID1-6aa6ceoz4-80x44.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIt was a redemptive win for the program, coming off a 75-44 loss to Corvian Community in the West regional championship in Winston-Salem a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew what we had to do as a returning group. We had to take leadership and let everyone know how hard it is to get here,\u201d sophomore guard Mehki Allen said.<\/p>\n
The west\u2019s top seed, Queen\u2019s Grant (33-3), played its 38th game of the season Thursday afternoon, and the marathon schedule against some of the top teams across the state and the region paid off for a state title. Thursday\u2019s victory was a 31st win in a row to close out the season for the Stallions.<\/p>\n
Warren County (14-10), the No. 8 seed out of the 2A East, was locked down on offense with its leading scorer, Nazir Shaw, scoring seven points.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur main focus is on defense. We weren\u2019t just focused on (Shaw), but their whole team as a whole,\u201d Queen\u2019s Grant junior Preston Scott said. \u201cWe don\u2019t try to key in on one guy because one guy can go off on any night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queen\u2019s Grant\u2019s defensive pressure helped the Stallions build a lead into double figures within the first four minutes of the game. The turnovers fueled highlight-reel fast breaks, mostly courtesy of sophomore guard Mekhi Allen, who threw down three dunks in the first three minutes. He had 11 points in the first period.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew that we did not need to let them get out in transition, and we didn\u2019t do a good job of that,\u201d Warren County coach Toriano McRae Jr. said. \u201cWe had to keep them off the offensive glass.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game plan didn\u2019t go as planned with the Stallions pulling down double the number of rebounds as the Eagles, including 17 offensive boards. Queen\u2019s Grant also scored the bulk of its points in the paint, with 68 of the 77 coming around the basket.<\/p>\n
Smith scored 22 points and pulled down nine rebounds in the first two periods against Warren County, outscoring the Eagles single-handedly by the halftime break. Smith finished with a game-high 27 points in his double-double performance to include 13 rebounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cPreparing for this game, we were watching film of other teams to see how open the middle was and how easy it was to get to the rim,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt was my team just trusting in me, looking for me to get me open looks. It was just me showing up and doing what I do to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith, who has drawn significant Division I interest, added state championship MVP honors to his r\u00e9sum\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Allen finished with 21 points to earn most outstanding player honors.<\/p>\n
The Stallions raced off with a running-clock margin with 3:12 left in the fourth.The entire roster for Queen’s Grant is made up of underclassmen, but any hopes of repeating the result won\u2019t come without the work being done, coach Joe Badgett said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople take for granted that this is hard to do. It\u2019s hard to win a state championship, and to win one is very special and very unique. There is no promise that you are going to get back,\u201d Badgett said. \u201cIt is special to watch them achieve this goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Warren County junior Jeremiahe Kearney led the Eagles in scoring with 12, and he was honored as the most outstanding player for Warren County.<\/p>\n
The Eagles’ smaller than usual roster of nine players warmed up on the Lawrence Joel Veteran Memorial Coliseum floor with shirts saying \u201cChosen 9.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a testament to their resiliency. In basketball, it\u2019s tough to do it with nine players. I have to suit up in practice to do a scrimmage,\u201d McRae said. \u201cThey weather those storms and really don\u2019t complain at all. I almost had four players play all 32 minutes. It\u2019s cool that this team right here, along with the last two Warren County teams that went to states had a name. Their legacy is defined here in Warren County.\u201d<\/p>\n
The small group carries the \u201cChosen 9\u201d is a nickname the Eagles carry with pride.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking it to states with nine players is hard, so that just gives everybody hope that you don\u2019t need a big team to get here,\u201d Shaw said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve just got to fight and stay together as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sportsmanship award winners from the two teams, honored before the contest, were Warren County\u2019s Jeremiah Barnett and Queen\u2019s Grant\u2019s Tristan O\u2019Neal.<\/p>\n
Box Score1Q2Q3Q4QFWarren County146131043Queen’s Grant2721131677 Warren County<\/p>\n Jeremiahe Kearney, 12Khalil Townsend, 11Nazir Shaw, 9Zane Freeman, 6Elijah Stevenson, 3Graham Hosch, 2<\/p>\n Queen’s Grant<\/p>\n Chase Smith, 27Mekhi Allen, 21Cannon DeBerry, 8Preston Scott, 6Joel Jackson, 4Bobby Montgomery, 3Jamal Mustaf, 2Ethan McSweeney, 2Jaleel Brown, 2Tristan O’Neil 2Postgame Press Conferences<\/p>\n Warren County<\/p>\n Queen’s Grant<\/p>\n Here are some helpful resources to follow the rest of the NCHSAA basketball state championships:<\/p>\n How they got here:<\/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":"WINSTON-SALEM, NC \u2014 The Queen\u2019s Grant boys basketball team is set to play at a home court built…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-161928","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\/161928","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=161928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/NCHSAA-4A-BBall-finals-1867-DMID1-66aguk1u1-80x60.jpg\")
<\/a>Scoring<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GBB_Cherokee_vs_East_Columbus-63-DMID1-6a8rh0vbo-80x60.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Untitled-1-1-DMID1-6a8oaasut-80x60.jpg\")
<\/a>![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BBB_Warren_County_vs._Voyager_Academy_8-DMID1-6a8nyeskv-80x60.jpg\")
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