{"id":162381,"date":"2026-03-13T14:28:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/162381\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T14:28:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:28:23","slug":"queens-grant-blow-out-warren-county-wins-nchsaa-2a-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/162381\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen\u2019s Grant blow out Warren County, wins NCHSAA 2A title"},"content":{"rendered":"

WINSTON-SALEM<\/p>\n

Queen\u2019s Grant\u2019s boys\u2019 basketball season has been defined by a seemingly simple task: finish what it couldn\u2019t a year ago.<\/p>\n

After losing in the NCHSAA West Regional championship in 2025, Queen\u2019s Grant announced itself in the same arena on Thursday afternoon in dominating fashion, exactly 366 days later. Before the game, sophomore forward Chase Smith told head coach Joe Badgett the arena \u201cfelt different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, it definitely does.<\/p>\n

The Stallions defeated Warren County, 77-43, in the Class 2A final Thursday, winning their first state championship in their first title game appearance. In the playoffs, Queen\u2019s Grant (35-3) has averaged more than 70 points, winning by at least 30 points per game. It won 31 straight games to end the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, we lost by 40,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThat was really bad. It hurt. Weeks and weeks after the game, I just wasn\u2019t in a good mood. Waking up, I just kept thinking about the game. So, definitely coming back (this) year, only losing three games, dominating the state championship and all that we overcame this year, that\u2019s a great feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Queen\u2019s Queen\u2019s Grant head boys basketball coach Joe Badgett, center, is pursued by his team to celebrate following their 77-43 win over Warren County in the NCHSAA 2A boys\u2019 championship game at Lawrence Joel Veterans Coliseum in Winston-Salem, NC on Thursday, March 12, 2026. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com <\/p>\n

Smith led Queen\u2019s Grant with 27 points on 13 of 16 shooting, adding 13 rebounds. A 6-foot-8, four-star recruit, Smith was named Catawba River Conference Player of the Year, averaging 16 points and seven rebounds this season. Sophomore Mekhi Allen finished with 21 points, and junior guard Preston Scott contributed six points and six assists. The Stallions outrebounded Warren County, 48-24.<\/p>\n

Badgett \u2014 who first started coaching at the middle school level at Queen\u2019s Grant in the 2000s \u2014 has now won both NCHSAA public and NCISAA private school state titles. The head coach won two private school championships at Carmel Christian School in Matthews.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they got a little bit of separation, they really just flowed into the game to finish it off,\u201d Badgett said. \u201cI\u2019m super proud of them. People take for granted this is hard to do. It doesn\u2019t matter what level; it\u2019s hard to win state championships. And to win one is very special, very unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Queen\u2019s Queen\u2019s Grant\u2019s Mehki Allen, center, splits the Warren County defense for two-points during the NCHSAA 2A boys\u2019 championship game at Lawrence Joel Veterans Coliseum in Winston-Salem, NC on Thursday, March 12, 2026. Queen\u2019s Grant defeated Warren County 77-43. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com In front from the jump<\/p>\n

Allen and Smith controlled the first quarter, combining for 21 points and going 10-for-13.<\/p>\n

Within the opening three minutes, Queen\u2019s Grant took a 12-4 advantage behind Allen, who scored eight points \u2014 with two scores coming from dunks \u2014 in fewer than two minutes, forcing an early Warren County (14-10) timeout.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the loss, we knew what we needed to do as the returning group,\u201d Allen said. \u201cWe have to take leadership and let everybody know how hard it is to get here. And when the lights are on, we got to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith took over from there, rattling off six straight points, pushing Queen Grant\u2019s lead to 13. Queen\u2019s Grant headed into the second quarter up 27-14 after Allen hit a 3-pointer with eight seconds left.<\/p>\n

\"Queen\u2019s Queen\u2019s Grant\u2019s Chase Smith throws down a two-handed dunk during action against Warren County in the NCHSAA 2A boys\u2019 championship game at Lawrence Joel Veterans Coliseum in Winston-Salem, NC on Thursday, March 12, 2026. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com <\/p>\n

Smith opened the second quarter with a dunk, scoring four more points over the next two minutes to keep Warren County out of reach. Although Warren County called two timeouts within 40 seconds, working to find a way to stop Queen\u2019s Grant, the Eagles didn\u2019t come up with any answers. Queen\u2019s Grant held Warren County to six points in the second quarter, entering halftime up 48-20 with Smith in the double figures.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur main hope is defense,\u201d Scott said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t just focused on one player. We were focused on their team as whole. In film, we saw all the shots came from driving up the middle, and our defense stopped that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen took over in the third quarter, scoring six quick points. But Warren County found some life, matching the Stallions\u2019 13 points in the third.<\/p>\n

In the final eight minutes, sophomore guard Joel Jackson scored four points and junior forward Cannon Deberry contributed two to push Queen\u2019s Grant\u2019s lead to an untouchable 33 points.<\/p>\n

\"Queen\u2019s Queen\u2019s Grant head boys\u2019 basketball coach Joe Badgett smiles as his team receives their medals following their 77-43 win over Warren County in the NCHSAA 2A boys\u2019 championship game at Lawrence Joel Veterans Coliseum in Winston-Salem, NC on Thursday, March 12, 2026. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com <\/p>\n

Following the game, Badgett said that the championship banner will be the first thing that goes into Queen\u2019s Grant\u2019s new gym. After arriving when the school first opened, the head coach recognizes how important this moment is.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor them to have this moment, it\u2019s exciting,\u201d Badgett said. \u201cIt\u2019s the first state championship that the school has ever had in its 17-18 year history. These guys are younger, but when they get my age, they\u2019ll understand what that actually means\u2026when they come back and see the banger hanging and that was us. That\u2019s a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published March 12, 2026 at 1:34 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINSTON-SALEM Queen\u2019s Grant\u2019s boys\u2019 basketball season has been defined by a seemingly simple task: finish what it couldn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[64691,66881,9,24,63,122,44943,124,123,40091],"class_list":["post-162381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-nc-high-school-basketball","tag-nchsaa","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-grant","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-warren-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162381","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=162381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}