Laney and New Hanover looking for Round 4 upsets tomorrow

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Over the weekend the NCHSAA State Basketball Playoffs continued across the area, and only two area teams remain in the mix for the state title. Today the New Hanover guys and Laney girls prepare for their Round 4 matchups tomorrow.

It’s not going to be easy for either team to get the win, but tough may be an understatement for New Hanover.

The Cats are faced with the task of knocking off the Defending State Champion Northside-Jacksonville Monarchs, who are on a 57 game win streak.

But let’s give New Hanover some credit, they just travelled to Northern Durham and sent the 4-seed home Saturday and haven’t lost a game themselves since late January.

New Hanover Coach Kirk Angel says it’s going to be a challenge, but his team will be ready.

“We’ve got to play really, really well,” Coach Angel said. “I think we’re playing well right now, but if we can pull that off, win at their place and get to an Eastern Finals, we’ve had a great season to date, but that would be icing on the cake.”

New Hanover and Northside met in the second game of the regular season where the Monarchs won. But these are two different teams and it should be a good matchup tomorrow night.

While Laney isn’t facing the defending champs, the Lady Bucs face challenges as well hitting the road to play Heritage tomorrow night.

This will be the first time that Laney has to travel in the state playoffs and Coach Ashley Berting says they’re facing a team fast in transition like New Hanover and shoots like Hoggard.

All season long, Coach Berting has had her girls lock in to a one game at a time mindset and it’s paid off thus far. Her team has fought hard all year and their success is due to hard work.

“It would be huge,” Coach Berting said. “It would just add to our journey this year. We have done some really good things and it’s all because of the work the girls have put in.”

This is the first time since 2008 that the Bucs have been in Round 4 of the state playoffs, it all goes down tomorrow night at 7 p.m.