The lobby of Viking Gym is lined with a large trophy case, and in it sits five state championship plaques commemorating each of the five state boys basketball titles won by Grainger High. There are three more memorializing the three title won by the boys program of Kinston High, which opened in 1970.
There are jerseys once worn by Jerry Stackhouse and Cedric Maxwell, who both went on to the NBA. There are articles left behind by Reggie Bullock, a McDonald’s All American in 2010 who will suit up for North Carolina today in the ACC tournament. But there is very little from Kinston’s girls basketball team, if anything, in the expansive case.
That’s because until Saturday, the Vikings have never been this deep into the season.
What began as a dream last March will become a reality on Saturday when Kinston takes part in its first girls basketball title game when the Vikings face Canton Pisgah at noon at the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill.
The girls program made history last season when it reached the regional finals but was denied its first trip to the championship when Siler City Jordan-Matthews crushed Kinston 68-21.
This year, the Vikings made amends for that loss by defeating the Jets 56-37 to go as far as any girls basketball team in Lenoir County history has gone before.
“Our girls are really excited about this opportunity. I’m excited for them,” Kinston coach Hubert Quinerly said during Monday’s state championship press conference.
“It’s just something that you dream about before because of all the hard work they put in — it’s just a culmination of everything. Like I tell them, you’ve got five days, one game left.”
This year’s senior class — Annie Thi, Alexis Williams, Monique Lofton and Starneka Clark — were freshman when this journey began.
They went 13-11 that year and were bounced from the first round of the state playoffs by Jacksonville Northside, but returned the following year to reach the regionals for the first time since 2003 but couldn’t get past Graham in the regional semis.
Last year as juniors, the quartet won their first regionals game but were denied their first trip to the state finals when they ran into the Jets.
This year, they are joining the boys in blue heaven — the Dean Dome.
“It hasn’t really hit me, like, Oh my gosh,” Lofton said. “Our first team goal was to win the conference; we did that. Our second was win the playoffs; we did that. Third was to win the regionals and we did that and our final goal is the state championship, and we’re on our way.”
Like the boys, the girls have used a disaster of a Christmas tournament to fuel their fire to a streak of 17 straight wins.
Kinston (26-4) lost three in a row at Bunn in the Bunn Christmas Classic, including a loss to the host school. When they returned to practice the following week, Quinerly made sure they didn’t forget those losses.
Run, run, run they did. And ever since, the Vikings have ran away from virtually every opponent.
“After we lost those three games at Bunn we were like a totally different team. Losing was like, definitely not us, especially three in a row,” Lofton said. “When we came back to practice we paid for all those losses. We ran like we had never ran before.
“We thought we were going to die,” Lofton joked. “I thought I had asthma and I don’t even have asthma.”
Kinston clinched its second straight outright conference championship in a 63-39 win over Tarboro on Feb. 5, and two games later started a streak of holding four of its next five opponents in their teens in a 49-17 win over North Pitt.
The underdog Vikings went to Pittsboro Northwood and handed it a 65-57 loss in the third round of the state playoffs to get back to the regionals for a third straight year — and a rematch with Bunn.
Kinston got the best of Bunn in this one, 49-45, then paid back Jordan-Matthews for last year’s embarrassing loss to get to the state championship.
While getting there is great — and the Vikings will get a plaque commemorating such accomplishment — winning it will be even better.
“We had to make sure our girls were ready to roll when the time came,” Quinerly said on getting over the regionals hump.
“To get past Jordan-Matthews is good, but to be in the state championship is awesome.”
Ryan Herman can be reached at 252-559-1073 or Ryan.Herman@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter: @KFPSports.