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Tag: high school basketball

  • State Champs: Lady Eagles Bring Home Hardware

    Richard Winn Academy head girls’ basketball coach Jason Haltiwanger takes down the net following Saturday’s title victory.
    Marion Walker Coleman (12) and Emily Brigman box out as Jaycie Johnson puts up a shot in the paint.

    In a game in which they never trailed, the Richard Winn Academy Lady Eagles varsity basketball squad wrapped up their 2012-2013 season by bringing home the SCISA Class 2A state title Saturday with a 46-31 victory over the Marlboro Academy Lady Dragons at the Civic Center in Sumter.

    Junior Carson Justice led the Lady Eagles to the Promised Land with 25 points. Jaycie Johnson, Jessie Stidham and Alyssa Atkerson added six points each, while Emily Brigman put up three.

    Richard Winn head coach Jason Haltiwanger, reflecting on his first SCISA title, credited a higher power for his team’s success.

    “We serve a good God, and that’s our motto,” Haltiwanger said. “We play unto the Lord, and these girls understand that. He went all out for us, so we go all out for Him. They understand that and play for that.”

    After dropping last year’s title game, 46-42 to Heyward Academy, and losing all-star center Alex Maass, 2012-2013 was expected to be a rebuilding season for the Lady Eagles. But in spite of starting two juniors, a sophomore, a freshman and an eighth-grader, and with two sophomores, two freshmen and an eighth-grader coming off the bench, Richard Winn put doubters to rest with a 29-1 record and a convincing championship win.

    “We had good leadership from our past,” Haltiwanger said. “We had Alex (Maass) last year, an unbelievable leader, and they followed that example. The guards stepped up and led for us, we had good coaching and good genes – a lot of these parents were state champions over here and their daughters play for us.”

    Both teams got out of the gate slowly Saturday, with the game scoreless into the 5:37 mark when Atkerson finally broke the ice with a 2-point bucket on an in-bounds play. A steal and layup by Justice on the ensuing in-bounds play gave the Lady Eagles an early 4-0 lead. Atkerson scored the final points of the quarter with a layup at the buzzer, giving Richard Winn a 10-7 edge after one.

    It was a slightly different look for the Lady Eagles’ defense Saturday, as Haltiwanger eschewed their standard full-court pressure for a more traditional look.

    “They were used to their bigs, their post players, to bring it up, which causes a problem,” Haltiwanger explained. “If their guards bring it up, we can put a lot of pressure, but they knew that so they brought their post players up to handle the ball and that made it tough for us to put a lot of pressure on them like that.”

    With 6 minutes to go in the second, Justice nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key, opening up the flood gates for the Lady Eagles, who out-scored Marlboro 14-9 in the period. Up 24-16 at the half, the Lady Eagles built a 10-point lead early in the third quarter. But with 5:16 to go, Marlboro Academy’s McKalyn Pruitt slipped through the half-court trap and laid in a 2-pointer. It was the first points for the Lady Dragons since the 2:36 point in the second quarter and began a run that cut the Lady Eagles’ lead to 26-22 by the 4:07 mark. Justice ended the Eagles’ drought with a 3-pointer with 3:45 to play in the period, but the Lady Dragons were on a tear. With 2:11 to play in the third, Marlboro’s Megan Quick sank a 3-pointer, cutting the lead to 29-28, but Justice answered on the other end with a long ball of her own to make it 32-28 Richard Winn.

    “We got frustrated,” Haltiwanger said of the third quarter drag. “We missed four layups there to start the half, so that was 6 to 8 points there that made it closer, and we got messed up on a few assignments on who was guarding who and left #11 (Quick) wide open and she drained a 3 on us. But we stayed resilient, showed a lot of resolve and kept battling.”

    Although out-scored 12-10 in the third, the Lady Eagles held a 34-28 lead to start the final period, and by then the wind had gone out of the Lady Dragons’ sails. Richard Winn slowed the pace of the game, draining the clock while working the perimeter on offense. The tactic opened up another 3 for Justice with 6:21 to play, upping the ante to 37-28. The Lady Dragons inched closer, 37-31, as Pruitt hit one of two from the foul line with 3:07 to play, but the charity stripe would ultimately prove to be the downfall of Marlboro Academy and the deal-closer for the Lady Eagles down the stretch. The Lady Eagles hit 14 of 22 from the foul line on the night, with Justice a perfect 4-for-4 and Emily Brigman 1-for-2 in the final quarter. The Lady Dragons, meanwhile, made only six of 25 attempts from the stripe all game long.

    With a title under their belts, and with their entire lineup returning, the Lady Eagles present a formidable challenge to the rest of SCISA Class 2A for years to come. Still, Haltiwanger is reluctant to start tossing around the term “Dynasty.”

    “I don’t know,” he said. “Whatever happens happens, but I hope so.”

    RWA—Carson Justice: 25, Jaycie Johnson: 6, Jessie Stidham: 6, Alyssa Atkerson: 6, Emily Brigman: 3.

    MA—Megan Bolger: 4, Megan Quick: 9, Katie McClaren: 6, McKalyn Pruitt: 7, Katherine Holmes: 5.

     

  • Lady Griffins Fight Off Tough Hammond Team to Advance to Finals

    It took an extra frame of free basketball to sort things out Friday night, but the Lady Griffins finally managed to dispose of a tough and tenacious Hammond team, 49-47, in round two of the Breast Cancer Awareness Tournament at Fairfield Central High School.

    The Lady Griffins trailed for nearly the entire game, as Hammond jumped out to an early lead against a Fairfield team that struggled to find the hoop. The Lady Skyhawks led 12-6 midway through the first half, but the full court press helped Fairfield dig out. A buzzer rebound put-back by Tiea Quanna Pearson tied the game at 16 at the break.

    Fairfield went cold again to start the second half, however, and Hammond ran up a 34-28 lead with 6:36 to play. The full-court press forced turnover after turnover, but the Lady Griffins could not convert in the transition. A 3-pointer by freshman Tanise Davis with 5:47 to go cut the Skyhawk lead to 38-33 and provided the Lady Griffins with the spark they had been looking for all game long. As the game raced toward the final buzzer, Christian Thompson nailed a 3-point basket to whittle the deficit down to a single point, 38-37, with just over 44 seconds remaining.

    Hammond then turned the ball over on the in-bounds pass play and Jada Martin drew a foul with 31 seconds to play. Martin’s first shot from the stripe rattled out of the rim and the fingernail chewing officially set in for the hometown crowd. But Martin’s second effort was true, and regulation would come to a close knotted at 38.

    The 4-minute extra period was a seesaw struggle, with the Lady Skyhawks taking an early 42-38 edge behind clutch free-throw shooting. Martin drained a 3-pointer with 1:27 left in the period to put the Lady Griffins up 45-44, but Hammond kept pace. With 20 seconds to play, Hammond freshman Margaret Adams hit the back end of a one-and-one to tie the game at 47. Martin then hit a 2-point basket with 7 seconds to go to give the Griffins the 49-47 final. Hammond’s Amoshia Blakeney put up one last effort at the buzzer, but the ball was short of the basket.

    The Lady Griffins face Miller Grove (Ga.) in the tournament finals Saturday (Dec. 29) at 6 p.m.

  • Lady Griffins Coast into Semi Finals; Boys Alive in Lower Bracket

    The Lady Griffins cruised to an easy victory Thursday evening in the first round of the girls’ bracket of the Fairfield Central High School Breast Cancer Awareness Tournament, obliterating Brookland-Cayce 52-8.

    Freshman Chyna Moore led the way with 23 points, going eight of 16 from the floor and seven of eight from the stripe. Junior Jada Martin went six of 11 from the floor for 13 points and snatched three second-half steals for the Lady Griffins.

    Showing the full-court press from the opening tip, Fairfield held the Lady Bearcats scoreless until the 7:20 mark in the opening half, at which time the Lady Griffins held a commanding 17-2 lead. Up 35-6 at the break, Fairfield Central allowed only a single field goal by the Lady Bearcats in the final 16 minutes of play.

    The Lady Griffins face Hammond tonight (Dec. 28) at 6 p.m. at Fairfield Central High School in the semi-finals.

    The Griffin boys’ squad, meanwhile, knocked Swansea out of the lower bracket Thursday afternoon, 56-49. Keith Workman led the Griffins with 20 points. The Griffins will play Camden at noon today (Dec. 28) at Fairfield Middle School.