The Fort Mill Yellow Jackets opened Region 3-5A play with a sweep of the Catawba Ridge Copperheads.
In the nightcap, Fort Mill won 56-43 pulling away in the fourth quarter.
“It was very similar to what I thought it would go,” said Fort Mill head coach Myron Lowery. “I knew it would be a grind.”
Scoring started slow for both teams to open the game. Catawba Ridge scored the first two baskets to go up 5-0. Fort Mill would then pull within one, before the Copperheads again pulled away.
Wallace Campbell scored the first six points for Fort Mill, before Nas Berry tied the game at eight. Both teams scored one more time before the end of the quarter as they were tied at 12 heading to the second quarter.
Both teams consistently turned the ball over, which helped them to be more evenly balanced. Neither team was able to get an advantage on the other as they both used their inside game to score; Fort Mill with their penetration and Catawba Ridge with their height.
The Copperheads did struggle with turnovers in the second quarter, but the Jackets weren’t always able to capitalize, however, Nas Berry was able to hit a 3-pointer right before the half to put Fort Mill up 23-20.
The second half started with both teams having multiple turnovers before Elijah Peters tied the game with a 3-pointer. A Berry three-point play put Fort Mill up 30-25 midway through the third quarter.
Logan Parker for Fort Mill was also key in the Jackets opening their lead late in the third quarter.
Fort Mill started the fourth quarter up by six and tried to slow things down. Defensively, Catawba Ridge started applying more pressure trying to force Fort Mill into mistakes.
Parker led the charge for the Jackets in the fourth quarter as Fort Mill was able to be more patient with the ball and wait for the right shot.
The Jackets extended their lead to nine at 45-36 with about three minutes left in the fourth quarter. Fort Mill went to a four corners type offense in the final two minutes of the game. That led to the Jackets heading to the foul line more often.
“That is the difference in between a veteran team and a youthful team,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Brett Childers. “We learned a lesson. We have to be tougher later.”
Parker scored 14 of his team leading 26 points in the fourth quarter. Berry scored 14 points and Campbell added 10 points for Fort Mill as well.
Catawba Ridge was led by Mark Caslaru who scored 22 points.
The Copperheads dropped to 3-6 on the season, as Fort Mill improved to 10-1 overall.
Fast start propels Lady Jackets
The offense was slow to start for both teams. Fort Mill was able to get a little better start, but it took a while.
Catawba Ridge struggled with turnovers, as Fort Mill outscored them 10-1 in the opening period. The Lady Copperheads went 0-for-6 from the field in the opening quarter.
Catawba Ridge again struggled to start the second quarter allowing Fort Mill to get offensive rebounds, as they also struggled to score. Addison Cunningham gave Catawba Ridge their first field goal of the contest with about 4:35 left in the first half.
Fort Mill also wasn’t scoring a lot as they hit just one of their first eight shots in the second quarter. The Jackets continued to put some space between them and the Copperheads as Cunningham was the only Catawba Ridge player to score in the first half.
Fort Mill took a 19-6 lead into the half.
Saylor Heberling opened the second half for the Jackets hitting a 3-pointer. Lily Peleponuk scored for Catawba Ridge, but afterwards both teams went cold for a while. The Copperheads started finding a rhythm and went on an 8-0 run to pull within 10.
Fort Mill would hold them off when they started scoring as well. The Jackets started sending Catawba Ridge to the charity stripe where they had also struggled earlier in the game.
Fort Mill was up by 11 to open the fourth quarter, but the Jackets started the final period on a 7-0 run. After the run, the game was squarely in the Jackets corner as they would go up by almost 20 with two minutes left.
Izzie Barber led with 17 points for the Jackets and both Cunningham and Brooke Berninzoni each had 12 points for Catawba Ridge.
Catawba Ridge dropped to 4-6 overall and 0-1 in region play, while Fort Mill improved to 6-5 and 1-0 in the region.
Dec. 20 Roundup
The Nation Ford Falcons split with Northwestern to open Region 3-5A play. The Lady Falcons beat Northwestern 48-26 to improve to 1-0 in the region and 6-4 overall. The Nation Ford boys lost to the Trojans 74-64 to drop to 0-1 in the region and 2-6 overall.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
