High 5, Northside’s Malachi Moore: Co-captain scores 1,000th point, comes up big in team’s win

Published 4:11 am Friday, February 28, 2025

By Jason O. Boyd

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

YEATESVILLE, N.C. — We’ve had a number of high school basketball players from Beaufort County reach a plateau in their scoring this season, totaling 1,000 career points or more.

Add Northside’s Malachi Moore to that group.

On Tuesday, the Panthers’ junior and co-captain, reached the milestone in the second quarter. Moore scored his 1,000th point after hitting two free throws with 5:51 left in the first half. He finished with a team-high 25 points and helped Northside to an 82-67 victory over North Duplin in the first round of the Class 1A state playoffs.

We spoke with him about the milestone, the win and keeping the season going.

1. Let me ask you first off about the victory. You guys came out missing free throws and just things weren’t working. What changed from there?

“First quarter, we were sloppy, we didn’t have a hand in the game in the first half. And during halftime, coach was talking to us and we had to get in gear and, during the second half, we started getting together, being a team, playing team ball.”

2. You got your 1,000th career point in the second quarter, but you kept scoring after that (finishing with 25 points) and they need all your points. Talk about the milestone first and then talk about what happened after that.

“I couldn’t overthink or I had to keep my head up and not think about the points, I think I had to keep up with the team and don’t be selfish with the ball.”

3. So talking about the 1,000 point, that’s obviously an accomplishment. That’s kind of a memorable thing.

“1,000 points mean a lot to me. Where I really gotta give it up for the coach, my dad, my mama, and my teammates for everything they’ve done for me the past three years now. And I’m really happy and I really thank God. What I’ve been through in the past in my life. And it was really good having 1,000 points, putting the work in. It was a blessing.”

4. What was the second half like for you guys? That was a really aggressive team (North Duplin). I can’t really think of a team that you played, certainly not in conference, maybe Lejeune, that was that aggressive. You were really kind of having to hustle for everything. So what was that like as far as just that hustle and bustle?

“During the second half, we had to really get it together, and me and (teammate) Max (Vansant) and the team kept it, and we had to talk to our guys about getting rebounds, and boys are not tipping it, and get it together, and keep our heads straight and focused. And that’s really all we had to do, and we thank Zi’mier (Alexander) and Nick (Moore) for getting them rebounds for us.”

5. Talk about the win as far as where you go from here, because obviously, you’ve got a second round game. You get a win here after a bad taste in your mouth after losing to Lejeune. How does it feel to start playing like you guys are used to playing?

“We’re playing good, we got the win, but we’ve got to keep that. We can have fun with that win, and next day we’ve got to get it back straight during practice. And we’ve got to work a lot on stuff for the Friday game, so we’ve got to keep it straight and keep our mindset good.”

More Sports

Youth, experience drive Pack girls’ soccer to early success

NCHSAA sends questionnaire to schools about flag football

High 5, Washington’s Jamie Perez: Senior a big part of Pam Pack girls’ soccer team

Panthers top Manteo in Keech’s return to field

Print Article

SportsPlus

  • Polls

    Which payment options should be used for admission to high school sporting events?

    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...