The ninth ranked Fort Mill Yellow Jackets boy’s basketball held off a stubborn Spring Valley Vikings team to advance to the second round of the 5A state playoffs.
Fort Mill held on for a 57-55 win over the Vikings beating them for a third time this season to improve to 16-10 overall. The Jackets will now host Hillcrest at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18 in the second round. Hillcrest defeated Boiling Springs Thursday night. Game time for Saturday is to be determined.
Having played Spring Valley for a third time this season, the second time at home in the Hive, Fort Mill head coach Dwayne Hartsoe knew it wasn’t going to be an easy match-up for a third time.
“I expected it to be a close game,” he said. “The first time we played them and beat them pretty good is not the team they are indicative of. When we played down there, it was more of a close contested game like I expected. When you get to this point right here it is survive and move on. We are lucky we get to play again on Saturday.”
Fort Mill stared the game well as they usually do at home and went up 16-7 after the first quarter. The Jackets hit four 3-pointers in the opening quarter.
The Jackets led 30-19 at the half as they were able to stretch their lead as Braylen McCain, AJ Washington and Gabe Tooper led the way for Fort Mill in the first half.
The 11-point halftime lead slowly started to slip in the second half. Spring Valley went on a 7-0 run about midway through the third quarter to pull within five against the Jackets at 36-31. McCain hit a 3-pointer before the end of the quarter looking to give Fort Mill some breathing room, but Spring Valley came right back with a 3-pointer of their own to again pull within five to end the quarter.
McCain opened the fourth quarter for Fort Mill with another 3-pointer, one of four he had on the night. Fort Mill opened the fourth on a 5-0 run to go up 46-36, but the Vikings wouldn’t go away.
Washington hit a clutch three-point play to make it 49-40 with about 5:50 left. Spring Valley continued to chip away and pulled within five again at 51-46.
Spring Valley cut the Jackets’ lead to three at 56-53 with 1:16 to go and then chopped it down to a one-point lead at 56-55 with 27 seconds left in the game.
Logan Parker hit a free-throw for Fort Mill in the final seconds giving Spring Valley one last shot attempt to tie the game, which came up short.
Washington quietly led the way with 18 points for Fort Mill. McCain added 16 points and Tooper dropped in 13 points in the win for the Jackets.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
