The Catawba Ridge Copperheads set the cruise control and coasted into the championship games of their brackets.
Both the boys and girls team will play Friday in the Copperhead Basketball Classic finals as each team ran away in their semifinal games.
Boy’s bracket
The Catawba Ridge boys opened their game on an 18-0 run against Fairfield Central and never looked back in winning 82-39.
The Copperheads led 24-3 after the first quarter and 49-11 at the half as they had five players score in double figures led by Brady Ambrose with 18 points.
Catawba Ridge came out and was able to get to the basket easily scoring in transition. Despite the score, the Copperheads shot just under 50 percent from the field in the opening quarter. However, in the second quarter, they hit nine of 10 shots from the field, all high percentage shots with the help of fast break points.
Although they scored a lot of points, it was their defense that impressed head coach Brett Childers.
“I liked our defense,” he said. “When we play good defense, our offense follows it.”
Catawba Ridge did struggle some in the early going of the third quarter despite a big Ambrose presence on the block as he scored eight of his 18 in the third quarter. The Copperheads went up by 40 at 58-18 with about 2:30 left in the period and it would stay in that range for the rest of the game.
Grant Lovette scored 13 points, Owen Elliott dropped in 11 points and both Landon Foley and Lance Barnes added 10 points each in the win.
Catawba Ridge improved to 11-2 overall on the season and will take on Parkwood in the finals, who are also 11-2 on the season. The boy’s finals tip off at 2:30 p.m.
“Parkwood is very good,” Childers said. “It is going to be a big challenge.”
Girl’s bracket
The Catawba Ridge girls team controlled their game against Porter Ridge in their semi-finals match-up as they won 68-54 to advance to the finals of the girl’s bracket.
Both Morgan Davis and Makailah Davis each scored 20 points to lead the Copperheads. Catawba Ridge opened the game on a 10-4 run and shot 75 percent from the field in the first quarter as they used their speed and quickness to score on fast breaks.
The Copperheads led 21-7 after the first quarter and despite being outscored 20-18 in the second quarter, still held a 39-27 lead at the half.
Porter Ridge again gained on Catawba Ridge some in the third quarter, but Copperheads still held a 52-41 lead and used a strong free throw shooting aspect in the fourth quarter to pull away.
Morgan Davis, who had a career high 20 points, scored eight of those points in the fourth quarter.
“We didn’t play bad,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Sheridan Pressley. “We had some lulls in the second and third quarters and turnovers helped them go on a run. We are playing well together.”
The win for Catawba Ridge puts them at 9-3 overall on the season. They will face Rock Hill in the finals of the tournament, as the Bearcats beat Parkwood. The girl’s championship will tip at 1 p.m.
Fort Mill falls to Bessemer City
Despite a last-ditch effort, the Fort Mill girls’ basketball team fell to Bessemer City 45-44 and will play for seventh place in the tournament Friday.
Fort Mill was led by Julienne Chambliss, who scored 14 points in the game. The Jackets started strong and had an 18-8 lead after the opening quarter, but struggled in the second quarter turning the ball over eight times and was outscored 20-6.
The Jackets depended on their outside shooting a lot in the game, which failed them at times. Fort Mill did have a strong third quarter outscoring Bessemer City 14-7 to take a 38-35 lead into the fourth. However, once in the fourth, they managed just three shots from the field and only scored six points.
Fort Mill opened the fourth quarter with five consecutive turnovers and fell to 6-7 overall on the season with the loss. They will play Harding University at 11:30 a.m.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
