ROCK HILL – The opening of the Region 3-5A schedule for the Fort Mill Yellow Jackets put them against the No. 7 Blythewood Bengals.
Fort Mill, ranked No. 9 in 5A, came away with a 58-48 win to open their region schedule.
“We wanted to control the tempo which was huge for us,” said Fort Mill head boys coach Myron Lowery. “We still have to rebound better. We got off to a big lead which helps.”
The start of the boy’s game was very slow for both teams. Fort Mill ran their offense well and went up 9-0 before a Bengals timeout.
As the opening period wore on, Fort Mill started hitting from long distance and drained three 3-pointers to take a 17-6 lead after the first quarter. Fort Mill shot 60% in the opening quarter.
The Jackets’ offense remained methodical in the second period as they didn’t shoot a lot of shots, but were able to be smart in their shot selection. Fort Mill hit their first five shots in the quarter and continued to widen their lead over Blythewood.
Nas Berry scored 12 of the Jackets’ 17 points in the second quarter, most of which came from the foul line. Fort Mill led 34-21 at the break.
Despite their efforts, neither team was able to make a second half run in the third quarter.
Fort Mill turned the ball over five times in the first five minutes, but Blythewood wasn’t able to capitalize on their mistakes.
The Jackets were not able to get to the basket as much as they did in the first half, as Blythewood slowly crept back into the game.
Kishawn Anderson came up with two key 3-pointers near the end of the quarter giving Fort Mill a 43-29 lead to start the fourth quarter.
Blythewood started the quarter on a 10-3 run in the first three minutes of the fourth. Fort Mill was able to respond with a 5-0 run powered by Anderson and Berry.
Berry again took things into his own hands in the fourth, after being held scoreless in the third quarter, he scored eight of the Jackets’ 15 points in the fourth quarter. Berry led the Jackets with 22 points. Anderson added 12 points in the win. Darryl Carrington dropped in 11 points.
Fort Mill improved to 11-6 on the season with their fifth straight win.
Rally not enough for Lady Jackets
A fourth quarter rally wasn’t enough for the newly ranked No. 3 Fort Mill Lady Jackets, as they fell in their region opener to Blythewood 57-48.
Blythewood came out hot and went up early, while Fort Mill was able to keep pace. The Lady Jackets slowly chipped away and a 3-pointer by Julienne Chambliss put Fort Mill ahead 11-10 with about two minutes left in the first quarter.
Fort Mill was strong from beyond the arc hitting 3-pointers on three consecutive attempts and went into the second quarter leading 16-10.
Fort Mill started the second quarter with a 5-0 run. Blythewood climbed back into the game with a run of their own scoring the next eight points to cut the Jackets’ lead to 21-18.
On defense, Fort Mill often found themselves out of position in the quarter leading Blythewood to get easy baskets.
Fort Mill struggled offensively to hit high percentage shots and missed layups that hurt their chances to pull away.
The Jackets had just a four-point lead at 28-24 at the half.
Fort Mill struggled to score to open the third quarter as Blythewood started on a 7-2 run.
Blythewood went up 38-34 as Fort Mill struggled to score and get the ball inside to get good looks.
The Jackets hit just four shots in the quarter and was outscored 20-8 in the quarter as they trailed 44-36 to enter the final period.
Fort Mill started the fourth quarter cutting the Blythewood lead in half. The Jackets kept their foot on the gas as they regained the lead as part of a 9-0 run.
Blythewood had a resurgence scoring six straight points to go up 51-45. Turnovers became an issue for the Jackets in the later stages of the fourth quarter.
Julianne Chambliss led Fort Mill with 11 points and Jada Chambliss added 10 points as the Jackets dropped to 14-3 on the season.
Jan. 10 Roundup
The Catawba Ridge wrestling team fell to 15-11 on the season with a 48-24 loss to Northwestern to open their Region 3-4A duals.
Nation Ford wrestling opened its Region 3-5A duals falling 53-19 to Clover and are now 8-16 on the season.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
