Clarendon Hall uses press to rally from 15-point deficit to beat The King's Academy 42-36
Clarendon Hall to face Dorchester in AA semifinal game on Thursday
Sumter – A victory seemed to be nothing more than a mere formality for The King’s Academy girls basketball team in its SCISA AA state tournament quarterfinal game on Monday at Wilson Hall’s Nash Student Center.
The Lions took their biggest lead of the game at 34-19 on a basket by Emma Taflinger with 3:13 remaining in the third quarter. That’s when Clarendon Hall head coach Johnny Horton decided to go to a full-court, man-to-man pressure defense.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
The Saints limited TKA to no field goals and just two free throws over the remainder of the game. CH took advantage and rallied for a 42-36 victory to advance to the semifinals of the state tournament.
Clarendon Hall will take on Dorchester Academy at 6 p.m. on Thursday as Nash Student Center in a semifinal game. The winner will advance to the championship game on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Sumter Civic Center.
The King’s Academy, the lower bracket No. 1 seed, had been in control of the game for the most part until the Saints made the defensive switch. Horton said he waited so long to try something different because of the energy his players would have to expend.
“My staff was egging me on to do it,” said Horton, whose No. 4 seeded team improved to 18-6 on the season. “I was trying to conserve energy, but finally my coach said, ‘Look, if we don’t win this we’re not playing tomorrow.’ So that’s when we decided to go all out.
“It wasn’t too late. It was right on time. We strive to be as good as we can on defense. We want defense to be our identity, but at the same time, we want to try and conserve energy. The girls locked in on defense. I just sat back and enjoyed the ride.”
Not only did the Lions have trouble scoring, they had trouble getting up shots. There were a lot of turnovers that led to a lot of quick possessions for CH.
TKA head coach Andrew Alexander said he was not surprised by anything Clarendon Hall did, and he took blame for how his team handled it.
“We knew they were going to go full-court, man-to-man,” said Alexander, whose team finished with a 17-8 record. “We game planned against it; we had seen it before. When we screen we’re supposed to turn and face the ball, and we struggled with that a little bit. That’s on me as the head coach. I’ve got to have them better prepared.
“We just didn’t handle it well. Now give credit to Clarendon Hall.”
The pressure netted three baskets in less than a minute for Clarendon Hall, two from junior Ashley Berry and another from senior Sidney Berry. That cut the lead to 34-25 entering the fourth quarter.
The Saints had the deficit down to two 38 seconds into the final stanza. Ashley Berry hit a layup, junior Mandy Wells hit a layup and Sidney Berry hit a free throw and a layup after a steal to make it 34-32 with 7:22 remaining in the game.
Scoring became spare for both teams the rest of the way, but CH still managed to put up more points. Clarendon Hall tied the game on a jump shot in the lane by senior Macie McIntosh with 5:38 left. It took the lead on a Sidney Berry layup with 4:18 to go and went up 37-34 on a Wells free throw with 3:24 remaining.
The Lions finally broke a scoring drought of over 10 minutes when Lily Cathryn Alexander hit a free throw with 1:45 left to make it 37-35. Junior Maggie Harrington hit a free throw for Clarendon Hall before Alexander hit another free throw to make it 38-36 with 1:02 left.
Sidney Berry hit a free throw with 43 seconds to go. After a Lions turnover, McIntosh canned a free throw with 31 seconds left to make it 40-36. McIntosh put the game away with two free throws with 14 seconds remaining.
Sidney Berry led Clarendon with 11 points, while Ashley Berry had nine. Wells finished with eight and McIntosh had five.
Lauren Mills led The King’s Academy with 18 points. Kate Buckley had seven and Talfinger had five.
Though the season ended in disappointing fashion, Coach Alexander believes the future is a bright one for TKA.
“We’ve got seven players and just two of them are seniors,” he said. “We have 85 to 90 percent of our scoring back. These girls bought into the process, they know what we want to do and that is to put TKA basketball back where it belongs.”
Clarendon Hall played Region 1 foe Dorchester twice during the regular season and lost both teams. However, the Saints are hoping the third time is the charm.
“The girls are excited,” Horton said. “I told them we’re going to have to see them (Dorchester) again if we want to make it to the big game. They know what’s up next.”
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