GREENVILLE — After their exhilarating and exhausting 45-44 win over Fayetteville Britt in Saturday’s NCHSAA 4-A East Regional final, three Apex players and coach David Neal filtered into the makeshift media room at Minges Coliseum.

As each took his seat, forward DeArius White clutched the regional championship trophy. After taking one last look at it, he plopped it down on the table, then spun it around for the room to see — a reminder that while no one believed Apex would be playing for a state championship, he never lost faith.

“I always had confidence in my teammates,” White said. “Everybody counted us out, but I told them to keep fighting. I’m not the type of person to give up easily and I’m not giving up on my teammates. That was our goal from the beginning — to win a state championship.”

And now the Cougars — a team that was 4-9 on Jan. 8 — are one win away from that. They will face West champion East Mecklenburg (24-8) Saturday at Reynolds Coliseum at 7:30 p.m. in the 4-A state championship game.

“I couldn’t be prouder of these guys,” Neal said.

For the fifth straight game, the unheralded Cougars (19-11) found a way to win when few expected them to. Britt (27-5) had more size and more weapons, and Neal said he wasn’t sure how his team was going to do it.

“To be honest, I don’t know what our game plan was,” Neal said. “I knew [Louis Craft] was 6-9 and [Xavier Nixon] is a huge person, and [Gemal Minick] and [Kevin Bobson] — they’re just huge across the front line. We’ve got Weston [Murphy] and Tim [Plummer] and DeArius. I don’t know how we’re going to keep them from just playing volleyball and getting layups. The guys fought.”

Britt barely edged Apex on the glass, 31-28. At halftime, the Cougars held a 17-14 advantage in rebounds.

Most important was the Cougars’ defense. They held Britt to 31 percent shooting in the second half. Plummer neutralized Britt forward C.J. Williams, an N.C. State recruit. Williams, hounded also by foul trouble in the first half, had just five points on 1-of-4 shooting.

Britt’s Cornelius Snow picked up the slack, scoring a game-high 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 5-for-9 on 3-pointers.

“I thought we provided a championship effort,” said Britt coach Ike Walker Jr. “That’s what we talked about once this postseason began. Just provide a championship effort and see where it got us. Today, it just fell a little short.”

The game was close the entire way. Neither team led by more than four points at any time. The lead changed hands 15 times, and seven times the score was tied.

After trailing the entire fourth quarter, Britt’s Williams buried a 3-pointer with 1:55 to play that gave the Buccaneers a 44-41 lead.

White answered with an inside bucket on the Cougars’ next possession to cut it to 44-43.

Apex’s Adam Perry tipped a pass on the next Bucs possession and Murphy snatched the loose ball with under a minute to play to give the Cougars the chance to regain the lead.

And they wound up getting three tries at it.

On the first attempt, Plummer went straight at the hoop, but his layup was off. Britt’s Nichols grabbed the rebound but stumbled as he came down with it, resulting in a travel call and the ball going back to Apex.

On the second effort, White took an awkward jumper with a man in his face from 10 feet out. The ball glanced off the backboard. No one was able to grab the rebound, leading to a pile-up for the loose ball. A jump ball was called and Apex retained possession because the arrow was in its favor.

The Cougars got it right on the third try.

From the top of the key, Plummer drove to the hoop. He drew a double team and whipped the ball across the lane to Murphy, who was unguarded on the block.

“I just knew we had to be patient,” said Plummer, who had 13 points and seven rebounds and was named the regional MVP. “I knew it was going to come. I knew we were going to come up with the victory. I knew that last play, when they called me out, they were going to try to triple and double team me. So I knew somebody had to be open, and I found Weston.”

Murphy kissed the ball off the glass, and it rolled around the hoop before dropping in to give the Cougars a 45-44 advantage with 6.4 seconds to play.

“I wasn’t sure he was going to pass it or not, but I was ready for it,” said Murphy, who scored 17 points on 8-of-11 shooting. “I finished, and I’m glad I did.”

Britt got one last chance.

Snow’s 3-pointer was off the mark, and Nixon’s putback as the buzzer sounded glanced off the rim, securing Apex’s first appearance in the state championship game.

“They found a way,” Neal said. “They’ve been finding a way for what is it, five games now in the playoffs? Hopefully we can get it done one more time.”