CHESNEE – Both Fort Mill and Catawba Ridge advanced to the semifinals of the Chesnee Roundball Classic with wins coming Tuesday.
Catawba Ridge rolled Blacksburg 78-42 and Fort Mill routed Union County 66-43. The Copperheads will now face Boiling Springs and Fort Mill will face Hillcrest Wednesday. Fort Mill is scheduled to play at 6 p.m. Wednesday, with Catawba Ridge scheduled to play right afterwards.
The Copperheads led the evening off against Blacksburg and opened the game on a 14-0 run. Catawba Ridge was good in transition and able to use their speed and quickness to get out to an early lead, while Blacksburg struggled with turnovers.
Catawba Ridge opened the game going 7-for-7 from the field and led 21-9 after the first quarter. Blacksburg was able to play better in the second quarter and cut the lead to four at 25-21 with 4:30 left in the half. From that point, the Copperheads opened up a 15-point lead to close out the half leading 40-25 at the break.
“We started strong,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Brett Childers. “We had a lull there in the middle.”
The second half went much like the first as Catawba Ridge opened the third quarter with an 8-2 run and went up 46-25 with 4:15 left in the period. Turnover issues continued to plague Blacksburg as the Copperheads would hold a 27-point lead after the third quarter at 62-35.
In the fourth, playing mostly bench players, the Copperheads still outscored Blacksburg 16-7. One bad play did occur as Zyan Hager left the game with about four minutes as he hurt his right ankle. The status of the injury is unknown, but it would be the second starter for Catawba Ridge down with an ankle injury as Brady Ambrose was wearing a boot on his right foot after an ankle injury last week.
“We are a little banged up now,” Childers said.
Hager had dropped 20 points before the injury. Grant Lovette led Catawba Ridge with 24 points 14 of that coming in the second half.
In the Fort Mill game, both teams started off evenly matched, but the Jackets went on an 8-2 run to go up 17-11 with about a minute left in the first quarter.
Fort Mill was strong on the boards and was able to get to the basket. They also forced Union County in to multiple turnovers which led to them to getting baskets in transition. The Jackets went up 32-15 at the half as both Gabe Tooper and Braylen McCain each had seven points to lead Fort Mill.
The Jackets opened the second half on a 7-2 run, but turnovers kept Union County in the game as they went on a 12-3 run. Union County outscored Fort Mill 18-17 in the quarter, but the Jackets were able to get high percentage shots hitting seven of 10 shots from the field. That late surge helped Fort Mill pull away to take a 49-33 lead after the third quarter.
Fort Mill opened the fourth quarter on a 10-0 run to cement their lead and led 57-33 with six minutes left in the game.
Tooper led Fort Mill with 11 points in the game, but the Jackets had 11 players score as they were able to get reserves solid playing time and multiple scoring opportunities.
“We played better,” said Fort Mill head coach Dwayne Hartsoe. “It’s always good to start well. It helped to build some depth down the road.”
With the win, Fort Mill improves to 4-4 on the season and Catawba Ridge improves to 7-2 with their win.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
