With a 79-56 blowout win over Boiling Springs, Fort Mill head basketball coach Dwayne Hartsoe got his 400th career win as the Jackets opened Region 3-5A play with a victory.
Led by four players in double figures, Fort Mill improved to 3-4 overall and 1-0 in the region.
Hartsoe is in his 28th year of coaching overall and his 10th year at Fort Mill. Last season, he moved into second place behind Jim Walser on the all-time wins list for Fort Mill basketball coaches with 139 wins at the school. Walser holds the record with 177 career wins at Fort Mill. Hartsoe currently sits at 142 wins with Fort Mill.
The Jackets’ athletic director took pictures with family members after the game, but didn’t say much about the personal accomplishment.
“We are playing pretty good right now,” Hartsoe said. “It started at Lancaster, but there is always room for improvement.”
Fort Mill and Boiling Springs played each other tightly in the opening quarter, but it was the second and third quarters where the Jackets really started to pull away.
The Jackets unofficially shot 50 percent from the field in the game going 26-for-52 from the field, with mostly inside buckets. Kyle Neibch led with 22 points for Fort Mill as the majority of those points came at the foul line.
Daniel Penosky added 12 points, eight of those in the second half, and both Jackson Fewster and Reed Fanta, each scored 11 points in the win, with both of them scoring most of those in the second half as well.
Fort Mill outscored Boiling Springs 25-17 in the third quarter and opened the second half on a 10-4 run to make it 45-28 coming out of the break with a 35-24 lead. The Jackets hit 9-of-13 third quarter shots to go up 60-41 heading into the final quarter.
Boiling Springs was led by 15 points from Khalil Brown and 14 points from Camden Earl in the loss.
Fort Mill 45, Boiling Springs 37
The girls’ basketball game was a lot closer, but the results were the same with Fort Mill getting a 45-37 win to improve to 5-4 on the season and open Region 3-5A play 1-0.
Fort Mill’s Nadia Dial led the Jackets with 10 points, despite fouling out in the third quarter with 2:07 left in the period. Fort Mill had a good start out of the gate as they went up 16-8. The second quarter was more of a defensive struggle for both teams as they only combined for nine points.
The Jackets carried a 22-14 lead into the half and held off a Boiling Springs run in the second half.
“When you go into region play, the goal is to come out 1-0 after each game,” said Fort Mill head coach Heather Klipa. “We did what we needed to do.”
Boiling Springs rallied in the third quarter outscoring Fort Mill 12-8, as the Jackets clung to a 30-26 lead heading into the final period. In that quarter, Fort Mill opened on a 7-0 run and didn’t look back as they went on to outscore the Bulldogs 18-5.
These four teams are scheduled to be back at it Friday night with the Jackets making the road trip down I-85 for the second game in the season series.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
