The Catawba Ridge basketball teams split with the South Pointe Stallions to open Region 3-4A play as the boy’s game pitted two top 10 teams in the state against each other.
The 10th ranked Stallions got a key region road win over the third ranked Copperheads 40-37 in the boy’s game, while the second ranked Catawba Ridge girls used a fourth quarter run to pull away for a 70-51 win and improve to 14-1 on the season.
In the girl’s game, the Copperheads were led by Skyla Tuthill who scored 29 points and Makailah Davis who added 16 points in the win. Tuthill was key all game for Catawba Ridge as she scored 19 first half points to help her team take a 34-29 lead into the locker room at the half.
“We executed our game plan,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Sheridan Pressley. “I preached all week long about staying together. When we do, we are pretty good. We weathered some runs.”
The game was pretty close through the first three quarters as Catawba Ridge was able to take a small four-point lead after the opening quarter. Tuthill scored 10 first quarter points for the Copperheads.
South Pointe played Catawba Ridge tightly through the first three quarters as the Copperheads used their quickness and transition game to hold off the Stallions.
Davis came around in the second half and took some additional pressure off Tuthill to score as she scored 12 second half points. Morgan Davis also stepped up big in the second half and scored six of her 11 points and Tatum Postel scored six of her eight points in the second half also.
Catawba Ridge led 52-44 after three quarters and outscored South Pointe 18-7 in the final period. One thing that helped the Copperheads was their foul shooting as they hit 23-of-32 foul shots in the game as both the boys’ and girls’ games were filled with foul calls.
Up next for the Catawba Ridge girls is a road game at York Friday. The boy’s game at York has been postponed until a later date because of COVID-19 issues within the York boy’s program.
Boys come up short in closing seconds
In the Copperheads boy’s game against South Pointe, Catawba Ridge struggled with turnovers and their shots for most of the game, but was able to battle back and make it close before a late turnover by the Copperheads sealed things for South Pointe.
Catawba Ridge struggled mostly with their shots as they went 5-of-22 from the field in the first half to trail 23-15 at halftime. The Copperheads made a third quarter run and shot 60 percent from the field in the third quarter as they pulled within one at 29-28 heading to the final period.
South Pointe opened the fourth quarter on a small 3-0 run to give themselves some breathing room, but Catawba Ridge was able to battle back to tie the game at 33-33 with 3:25 left in the game. The two teams started trading foul shots as each team made trips to the charity stripe down the stretch on nearly every possession.
Trailing by one with about 23 seconds to play, Catawba Ridge turned the ball over and South Pointe would extend their lead to 40-37 on the steal and basket to close the game out with about four seconds left.
“We had stretches where we didn’t score,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Brett Childers. “We fought back. Our guys stepped up. We had our chances.”
Catawba Ridge was led by Landon Foley who scored 12 points as the rest of the Copperheads were in single digits. The Copperheads were also without leading scorer Grant Lovette who injured his left ankle in the first half and missed the second half of the game. The extent of his injury is unknown at this time.
The loss drops Catawba Ridge to 15-3 overall and 0-1 in region play. They will next take on Northwestern at 6 p.m. Monday, January 17 at the Rock Hill Events Center as part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Tournament.
Falcons open Region 3-5A play with a sweep of Boiling Springs
The Nation Ford boys’ and girls’ team opened Region 3-5A play sweeping Boiling Springs Tuesday evening.
Nation Ford’s girls beat the Bulldogs 47-32 to improve to 5-11 overall and are now 1-0 in region play.
The Nation Ford boys won 54-40 as they were led by Quadier Hand with 18 points and held the Bulldogs to just two points in the fourth quarter. Nation Ford is now 6-9 overall on the season and 1-0 in region play.
Both Falcons’ teams will host Clover Friday to try and improve on their region record with the girl’s game scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. followed by the boy’s game.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
