basketball tournament with wins Monday.
The tournaments kicked off basketball season for all three local schools with the boys’ games being played at Fort Mill High and the girls’ games being played at Catawba Ridge. All games were played as two 16-minutes half instead of four eight-minute quarters.
Fort Mill
The Fort Mill boys beat Piedmont 54-44 and were led by Gabe Tooper, who dropped in 17 points. Darryl Carrington added 16 for the Jackets as well as Fort Mill shook off a sluggish start to score the final five points of the first half and take a 27-25 lead into the locker room.
Fort Mill had nine first half turnovers and played from behind a lot as they started slow. Piedmont was big on second chance points in the first half and crashed the board often to get those opportunities.
Carrington scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half including hitting three 3-pointers.
Both teams started the second half slow as the game slowed down. Fort Mill did better with their ball handling, which allowed them to get to the basket more often and start to pull away. Tooper scored 12 of his 17 in the second half and both AJ Washington and Braylen McCain came up big in the second half for the Jackets. Washington scored four of his seven points and McCain scored all six of his points as Fort Mill pulled away.
Fort Mill will now take on Collins Hill out of Georgia in day two of the tournament today with the game scheduled to tip at 8:45 p.m.
The Fort Mill girls won easily beating Strom Thurmond 59-26. Clare Moore led with 16 points in the win for the Jackets. They will now take on Catawba Ridge on day two at 8:45 p.m.
Catawba Ridge
For the Copperheads, the boy’s team had no trouble in easily beating Strom Thurmond 61-22.
Catawba Ridge was led by Zyan Hager who scored 21 points, 18 of that coming off six 3-pointers. The Copperheads had a big first half with Hager scoring 18 of his 21 in the first half, all on 3-pointers, as they took a 37-6 lead at the half.
The second half was a lot closer between the two teams as at one point, each team split the first 22 points between them. However, the Copperheads went on a 13-5 run to finish out the second half and easily get the win.
Catawba Ridge will now take on Westminster Catawba on day two of the tournament at roughly 7:30 p.m.
The Copperhead girls team beat Chesterfield 55-25 in day one of their tournament and will now face Fort Mill on day two. Tatum Postel led Catawba Ridge with 25 points including seven 3-pointers.
Nation Ford
Both Nation Ford teams lost in the opening round of the Milltown Classic.
The Nation Ford girls nearly came from behind to win, but fell to the Andrew Jackson Volunteers 70-62. Camille Kerridge scored 38 points for Nation Ford in the loss.
Both teams struggled with turnovers early in the first half, but the Vols were effective on the glass and able to get several second chance opportunities.
The Falcons were able to come back and pull within 11 at the half trailing 41-30. In the second half, Nation Ford played better and got more people involved as they pulled within three points on two occasions, but could never close the gap.
Kayla Wilmore scored 11 points for Nation Ford in helping with the comeback, but Andrew Jackson had two players score more than 25 points as they were able to fend off the Falcons.
Nation Ford will now have to play at 5 p.m. Tuesday against Olympic on day two of the tournament.
The Nation Ford boys lost 70-55 to open their season falling to Westminster Catawba. The Falcons will now take on Strom Thurmond at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Fort Mill.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
