Local teams continued to thrive on day two of the Milltown Basketball Classic as the Fort Mill boys team punched their ticket to the finals of the tournament.
The Jackets beat Catawba Ridge Tuesday night 45-44 to advance to the finals. The Copperheads will now play for third place in the tournament against Nation Ford at 1:30 p.m. Fort Mill plays Riverside in the finals at Catawba Ridge High at 2:45 p.m. Both games are at Catawba Ridge High.
On the girl’s side of the bracket, all three local teams are playing for different spots. Catawba Ridge girls are playing against North Myrtle Beach for third place at 1:30 p.m. at Nation Ford High. The Fort Mill girls will play against Riverside for fifth place at 12:15 p.m. and Nation Ford will play against Piedmont for seventh place at 11 a.m. to open day three of the tournament with both games being at Nation Ford.
Jackets edge Copperheads, Hartsoe gets win 150 at Fort Mill
Fort Mill was able to hold off Catawba Ridge in the semifinals Tuesday as Zach Jennings hit one of two free throws with 6.6 seconds left in the game to give the Jackets the win. And unlike Monday night, Catawba Ridge wasn’t able to get a shot off before time expired.
“Our defense was solid tonight,” said Copperheads’ head coach Brett Childers. “Anytime you play a crosstown rival, its treated like a playoff game.”
The win puts Fort Mill at 2-0 this season and gave Jackets’ head coach Dwayne Hartsoe win number 150 at Fort Mill. He said his team has to control the ball better going forward.
“We battled,” he said. “We got down and came back. That says a lot, but we got to eliminate turnovers. They (Catawba Ridge) are a good team. It was two pretty evenly matched teams.”
Kyle Neibch led Fort Mill with 17 points and Tyler France led Catawba Ridge with 14 points.
Riverside is a preseason top 10 5A team and Hartsoe said it will be good to see competition like that early in the season. For the Copperheads, it is another rival game against Nation Ford Wednesday, as both of them are 1-1 on the season.
Falcons fall to Riverside
Nation Ford boys lost to Riverside 57-48 in the other semifinal game of the boy’s bracket. The Falcons were led by three players in double figures, but got off to a slow start and never really recovered.
Quadier Hand led with 13 points for Nation Ford, followed by Nas Berry with 12 points and JJ Rembert with 10 points.
Riverside took a 18-4 lead after the first quarter and despite the Falcons outscoring them 21-8 in the second quarter and making a game of it by the half, Nation Ford couldn’t hold Riverside off down the stretch.
Girl’s bracket
On the other side of town, Catawba Ridge lost handily to Rock Hill 68-35 in the semifinals of the girl’s bracket.
Rock Hill controlled the game from nearly the opening tip and surged ahead in the second quarter with a 23-8 period. The Copperheads struggled with turnovers and Rock Hill was strong on the glass as they rebounded the ball well and took advantage of second chance opportunities.
At the half, Catawba Ridge trailed 36-15 and never really were able to keep pace with Rock Hill. The Copperheads were led by Skyla Tuthill, who had 18 points, and Makailah Davis with 10 points.
“Rock Hill is a good team,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Sheridan Pressley. “It’s early. We can’t hit the panic button yet. We have to be us and we have to execute and play our game.”
Catawba Ridge will close the tournament out trying to grab third place from North Myrtle Beach Wednesday.
Fort Mill beats Falcons in first match up of the season
A strong but deep Fort Mill girls’ basketball team beat Nation Ford 59-43 Tuesday in the consolation semifinals.
Fort Mill started off strong and never really looked back as they went up 38-20 at the half. Nation Ford played better in the second half, but couldn’t mount enough offense to overcome the Jackets, who had a 24-point lead after the third quarter.
“All we need is more pieces to score,” said Nation Ford head coach Corretta Richmond. “The other components have to start scoring.”
Nation Ford freshman Camille Kerridge led all scorers with 32 points for the Falcons. Fort Mill was led by Nadia Dial, who scored 14 points in the win.
Jackets head coach Heather Klipa said she felt like her team had first game jitters on Monday and showed more of what they could do against Nation Ford.
“We have got a lot of kids that have never touched foot on a varsity floor,” Klipa said. “We saw what we have been seeing in practice and it worked.”
Both teams will try to wrap up their portion of the tournament Wednesday before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
