Isaiah Evans is human. But the future Duke Blue Devil still did something spectacular

The great ones find a way even when they aren’t playing great, and that’s exactly what North Mecklenburg senior star Isaiah Evans did Thursday night against Lake Norman in an NCHSAA 4A state semifinal.

Lake Norman was on the precipice of an upset, having used three different defenses to confound Evans and hold him scoreless during the third quarter. Lake Norman moved in front late and led, 57-53, with 37.4 seconds to go, as an evenly split crowd that filled most of the lower deck screamed on both sides of what is usually Wake Forest’s home gym.

Evans, only 9-for-26 from the floor at that point and yet to have worked his way to the free-throw line the entire game, came hurtling down the lane. He knifed between several defenders and scored on a contested layup.

Then came an enormous steal by North Meck’s Ashton Pierce on the inbounds play and the ball quickly went to Evans again. He stutter-stepped, found a sliver of daylight and, still with all sorts of pressure in his face, let fly from 17 feet.

Swish. Tie game.

“That last one he made — holy cow,” Lake Norman coach Grant Hodges said afterward of Evans’ game-tying basket in regulation. “We had two dudes on him. Just a great shot.”

“I knew I had plenty of time — 10 or 12 seconds left,” said Evans, who has committed to play for Duke next year. “I looked over at Coach (Duane Lewis) and he told me to go. So I went.”

Lake Norman still had the ball in a tie game with 11.2 seconds to go, and took two hurried shots to try and win in regulation. But neither was close and the game went to overtime, where Evans continued his late takeover. He finally got to the free-throw line, too, making two in a row with 6.8 seconds left to clinch a 65-61 win.

I came to Winston-Salem mainly to watch Evans, whom I hadn’t seen play in person this season and who had just scored a phenomenal 48 points in North Mecklenburg’s 79-63 quarterfinal win over defending 4A champion Myers Park.

In that game, no one could touch him.

In this one, Evans looked much more human — cramping occasionally, obviously winded at times, and just 12-for-32 from the field when it was done. Still, that was enough for 30 points — a hard 30 points, scored in 32 minutes of regulation and four more minutes of overtime. Evans never came out. He added 11 rebounds and five steals as North Meck (29-3) advanced to the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4A state championship game at 7:30 p.m. Saturday vs. Wilmington New Hanover.

So let me try to put Evans in a little perspective. He repeated as North Carolina’s Mr. Basketball on Friday, winning the state’s most prestigious individual high school basketball award for a second straight season. He scores points in bunches, although his 6-foot-7, 180-pound frame will get bounced around a lot more in college.

I’m old enough to have watched both LeBron James and Zion Williamson play a game when they were playing at their respective high schools. Evans doesn’t scare opponents like those two did, partly because LeBron and Zion already looked like tall NFL linebackers in high school. But he shoots better than either of those guys did at that time in their lives. You could see that even while Evans was suffering through a game Thursday in which he was a pedestrian 3-for-10 from 3-point range.

He does need to work on getting to the line more. The best scorers in college get a lot of free points there. On Evans’ first 31 shots Thursday, he generated exactly zero fouls. Some of that is because he blows by people too quickly to even be fouled, but some of that is because he just elevates over everybody and settles for long jumpers at times instead of getting into the paint and forcing the action. It looks pretty when the jumper goes in, and he hit an enormous one on that “holy cow” shot at the end of regulation.

But when it’s not going in, Evans needs to drive more. He should study some more Steph Curry and Caitlin Clark tape; both have mastered the idea of scoring in all sorts of ways if the 3-pointer isn’t going down.

Lake Norman had a great game plan to slow Evans down and it nearly worked. The Wildcats confused him, made him work and had junior 6-10 power forward Trent Steinour (who’s going to be a fine college player himself).

But then Evans did what only a few athletes can do, shaking off what had been an on-and-off performance all night to make the game his own at the end.