Catawba Ridge’s Morgan Davis drives to the basket against a Lancaster defender during Wednesday’s game.

With a thrashing of the Lancaster Bruins, the Catawba Ridge girls’ basketball team clinched a share of the Region 3-4A title with a 49-18 victory.

The Copperheads finished the regular season with a 14-2 record and a 7-1 region record. They will share the region title with South Pointe, who will finish region play with a 7-1 record after taking on Lancaster Friday night, as the Stallions are expected to win handily. Catawba Ridge and South Pointe split games with each other during the regular season.

“We are excited about it,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Kate Edwards. “This year more than any, you have to show resilience.”

Catawba Ridge will get the second playoff spot out of the region meaning they will be on the road in the first round Feb. 20 at Greenville. This is the second consecutive year the Copperheads have made the playoffs.

“It is a good match-up for us,” Edwards said.

In their game against Lancaster Wednesday night, the Copperheads were led by Victoria Jordan, who scored 20 points and Morgan Davis, who added 10 points. Catawba Ridge was dominate through the first three quarters of the game and led by 30 or more points on multiple occasions.

Catawba Ridge got off to a 13-3 start after the first quarter and really poured in the points in the second and third quarters. The Copperheads’ defense was a real catalyst in the win causing unofficially 23 turnovers.

The Copperheads started the second quarter on a 6-0 run to go up 19-3 and cruised to a 28-6 halftime lead. Another 6-0 run to open the second half put the score at 34-6, before Lancaster was able to play somewhat better towards the latter part of the third quarter, but never did enough to present a challenge.

Boys team struggles with turnovers and rust in their return

The Catawba Ridge boys struggled in their first game since Jan. 21 as they fell 42-34 to Lancaster.

The Copperheads had unofficially 25 turnovers in the game, with roughly 15 of those coming in the first half. Catawba Ridge was able to make a game of it in the second half after settling down some and took a 33-32 lead in the fourth with about four minutes left.

Lancaster then went on a 7-0 run to make it 39-33 in which the Copperheads never recovered. Jacobie Henderson led Catawba Ridge with 14 points in the game.

“The first half was a little rushed and a little rust,” said Copperheads head coach Brett Childers. “The second half we got looks and we got shots, that just didn’t fall.”

The loss drops Catawba Ridge to 5-7 overall and 1-4 in region play and Childers admitted that the loss makes it hard, but not impossible, for them to get a playoff spot. The plan to have a post-season tournament to get the region finalists into the playoffs has been canceled as teams will now have to finish their regular season.

The tournament wasn’t agreed upon by all region teams now since South Pointe has locked up at least a share of the region title with a 6-0 record. The Copperheads will now host Indian Land Friday in their first match-up of the season before hosting Lancaster Feb. 16 and then finishing the regular season at Indian Land Feb. 18.

Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep

Catawba Ridge’s Jacob Stevens lays in the ball over a Bruin defender during the Copperheads’ game in Lancaster Wednesday.