Smith standout Markquan Gilbert created a memory when he won the most valuable player award as the West took a 111-86 victory over the East in the 75th anniversary North Carolina Coaches Association East-West All-Star men’s basketball game on Monday night.
“It means a lot because this is my last high school game,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert averaged 14.8 points and a team-leading 9.2 rebounds for the Golden Eagles, who tied the program’s best all-time record at 27-4 and reached the NCHSAA 3A elite eight. On Monday night Gilbert, the HSXTRA second-team selection, scored 18 points, as did teammate Kyler Harris of Porter Ridge. Gilbert had a game-high 11 rebounds and tied teammate Philly Harris of Freedom with a game-high five assists.
Mount Tabor All-Northwest selections JP Peterkin and David Peral had 16 and 11 points, respectively.
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“I didn’t expect to be selected (for the game), so it was pretty cool,” said Peral, a 6-foot, 8-inch forward who also had two blocked shots. “I’m just glad that JP was here, too, because we have good chemistry. Every time he cuts, I’m passing and it was fun.”
The West now leads the all-time series 37-36, with the games being played every year since 1949 except for 2013 and 2020. It has won three of the past four games after losing three straight to the East.
Gilbert, Peral and his teammates grabbed the early momentum with Gilbert scoring or assisting on every basket as the team went on a game-opening 13-4 run. In that stretch, Gilbert made the game’s opening basket, assisted on a trio of 3-pointers to future NC Wesleyan teammate Peterkin and assisted on a dunk to Mountain Heritage’s Maxwell Smoker.
The East narrowed the gap to 13-10, but from there, Philly Harris and Kyler Harris combined for 14 points as the West closed the first quarter up 31-18. At the half, it led 62-38 on 49% field goal shooting compared to the East’s 34.3% and had the 24-point lead despite going 6-for-13 at the free throw line.
Two-time All-Northwest Player of the Year Will Gray of East Forsyth, a guard who’s headed to UNC Pembroke, scored seven points. He had a highlight-reel steal and dunk with 3:43 left in the second quarter.
Jared Davis of Seventy-First and JB Brockington of Lumberton each scored 16 points for the East, while Jack Voth of Hoggard added 15.
The East women took a 74-68 win in the first game of the doubleheader, their second consecutive win in the series.
Purnell Swett graduate Kylie Chavis received MVP honors with 13 points, which included a 3-point bank shot from the left wing with 30.8 seconds to go, giving the East a 70-66 lead.
“Well, she did the same thing to us in the state playoffs,” said East coach Nicole Sampson of Southeast Raleigh Magnet. “She knocked us out in the state playoffs and so I knew what she was capable of, which is why I put her on my team.”
The East led 33-31 at halftime despite shooting 33.3% from the field. It held the West to just 26.2% from the field.
The West quickly tied it up with a Gracyn Hall lay-up, but Chavis hit one of her three 3-pointers to break the tie. Her next 3 gave the East a 43-33 advantage with 6:26 left in the third quarter.
West forward Evangelia Paulk made a left corner 3 to narrow the gap to 63-62 with 3:02 left in the game, but the East’s 6-foot star forward Caroline Thiel made one of two from the line to make it 65-63. Then came the 3 from Chavis.
Thiel had a team-high 13 points.
“Our girls were resilient,” Sampson said. “They fought hard. We got into some early foul trouble and we could’ve gotten down in the dumps about that. The (West) team fought back, we could’ve gotten down on that, but they just found a way to win.”