Kernersville – The Murphy boys basketball team knew the challenge that awaited them in the second round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A playoffs against No. 4 seed Bishop McGuinness.
The Villains had not lost to a 1A team all season, including a dominant run through the Northwest Piedmont Conference that included three wins over Winston-Salem Prep, which Murphy beat 64-60 in the first round two days earlier.
But the Bulldogs (17-10 overall) had also gone to Bishop McGuinness (23-5) last year in the first round of the playoffs and played the Villains tough, leading in the second half before fading down the stretch in a 65-55 loss. There was a sense that Murphy knew it was getting into, and some confidence from having a full roster available after missing two players for the whole game and two more for the first half of its first-round playoff game.
So when Zach Skogen and Dillian Brown started the game by hitting back-to-back 3-pointers, it looked like the Bulldogs could push one of the top teams in the 1A West. After that, though, Bishop McGuinness quickly settled in and dominated the rest of the game, ending Murphy’s season with an 80-49 loss.
The Villains provided challenges on both ends of the floor. While the Bulldogs had seen height similar to 6-foot-9 junior Cal Barrett inside, they hadn’t seen the length, size and quickness Bishop McGuinness had on the perimeter.
Passing lanes that had been there for much of the season weren’t there, and Murphy started to press on offense because of that, resulting in several turnovers. When that wasn’t an issue, the Villains’ guards were also adept at taking the ball away from the Bulldogs’ ball handlers. Murphy exacerbated these issues by missing some makable shots early, and Bishop McGuinness capitalized on every miscue.
While the Bulldogs struggled to get in a flow on offense, the Villains had no issues. They struck in transition, in the set half-court offense, and used their size and length to dominate the glass on both ends. Following the back-to-back threes by Brown and Skogen to start the game, Bishop McGuinness went on a 14-0 run and never led by less than six points the rest of the way.
A 3-pointer by Skogen cut the lead to 21-15, and the Villains answered with a 10-2 run. Then Brown hit a three to trim the lead to 11, only for Bishop to answer with a 15-2 run before Cole Laney’s heave from a few feet inside half court cut the Villains lead to 45-25 at halftime.
Murphy would trim the deficit to 17 points in both the third and fourth quarters, but get no closer. After cutting the lead to 64-47 with 5:26 remaining in the game, the Bulldogs went into a full-court press that Bishop McGuinness broke easily, resulting in a Barrett layup. Everything Murphy did, the Villains had an answer for.
Skogen led the Bulldogs in scoring in their last game of the season with 13 points, while Brown had 12. Northwest Piedmont Conference Player of the Year Jamison Graves had 22 to lead Bishop McGuinness, while John Campbell added 18 and Barrett 13.
Bishop McGuinness would knock off No. 5 seed Thomasville (24-6) 65-60 in overtime in the third round, and traveled to No. 1 seed Mountain Heritage (26-1) for a fourth-round game which took place after press time Tuesday night.
The loss ended one of Murphy’s best seasons in recent memory. The Bulldogs shook off a 2-5 start to win their most games in a season since the 2010-11 campaign. They also finished second in the Big Smoky Mountain Conference for the second time in three years, and made the conference tournament final for the first time since the 2019 season.
The team’s best moment perhaps came in the first round in the state playoffs. In the program’s first home playoff game since 2011, Murphy squeaked past perennial 1A power Winston-Salem Prep despite being heavily undermanned.
The Bulldogs will graduate seven seniors, including leading scorer Brown, two more starters in Cole and Ty Laney and role players Will Carringer, Dozer Mashburn and Wyatt Simmons. But Skogen and Dominick Rummler will both be back after averaging double figures this year as juniors, and the core of this year’s junior varsity conference tournament champions will come up to the varsity level next year with a winning pedigree after taking the conference titles both this year and in middle school.