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Wilson Hall boys edge Laurence Manning 47-44 to win region championship

Dennis Brunson hssr.com Associate Editor • Feb 12, 2024

Buxton hits four free throws in last 31 seconds to secure victory

      Sumter – The Wilson Hall boys basketball team defeated Laurence Manning Academy 47-44 on Friday at Nash Student Center. While the Barons won the SCISA Region 2-AAAA championship with the victory, head coach Rip Ripley was just as excited with the style of the victory.

 

           “It was back and forth, and it was nice to win one like that,” said Ripley, whose team improved to 21-7 on the season while finishing 5-1 in the region. “We’ve had a number of games like that, but just a few where we came out on this end, so that was nice.”

 

           There were six lead changes in the fourth quarter alone. A driving layup by Swampcat eighth-grader Scoop Dennis for the first points of the final stanza gave the Swampcats a 38-37 lead. A layup by Knox Buxton put the Barons back on top 39-38 before a steal and layup by Dennis gave LMA a 42-41 lead with 5:24 to go.

 

           WH’s Daniel Burton got loose for his third slam dunk of the night to take it 43-42 with 4:40 left. Neither team would score again until four minutes later. That’s when Laurence Manning’s Mason Nivens hit a layup off of a nice assist from Zy Dennis. The final lead change came when Buxton was fouled with 31 seconds, and he hit two free throws to make it 45-44.

 

           After an LMA miss, Buxton was fouled with 7.5 seconds remaining, and he sank two more free throws for the final 3-point victory as LMA missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

 

           The win gave Wilson the top seed for the region tournament which begins on Monday at Sumter County Civic Center. The Barons are playing Camden Military, while Laurence Manning will take on Trinity Collegiate in the other game. The winner of those games will meet on Tuesday.

 

           “I was hoping we would be able to finish the job and carry it on to the region tournament,” Ripley said. “This will help us out for seeding (for the state tournament, which begins on Saturday).”

 

           Burton had a huge game as he was one of five Barons celebrated on Senior Night along with Jones DesChamps, Tucker Burnette, Connor Hanson and Andrew Brown. The 6-foot-8-inch Burton had 20 points while grabbing nine rebounds.

 

           “He's special,” Ripley said of Burton. “It makes coaching so much easier to have guys like a lot of them. Tonight was his night."


           Shawn Michael Matthews added 10 points for Wilson Hall, eight of them coming in the first quarter. Buxton finished with eight points, while Hugh Humphries had four, Ford Wilder three and Burnette two.

 

           Laurence Manning, which fell to 16-8 and finished 4-2 in region play, was led by Josiah Burson with 12 points. Noah Tanner scored 10 points, hitting a pair of 3-point shots. Scoop Dennis finished with nine points while fellow eighth-grader Shane Goines had seven, Thomas Sumpter had four, and Nivens had two.

 

           “We played hard and I'm proud of the effort,” said Swampcats head coach Will Epps. “Nobody played bad, we just didn't execute offensively quite the way we had hoped. It's more of them (Wilson Hall) doing a grat job. We tip our hats to them.

 

“We didn't shoot very well from the perimeter. If we would have shot a little bit better, it would have opened it up more getting to the basket.”


By Billy Baker 17 May, 2024
By Billy G. Baker Publisher Moncks Corner — In a Lower State AAAAA softball play-off game continued from a second inning rain-out the night before, (May, 15), between Berkeley (19-9) and Chapin (22-8) , the home standing Stags won a pitcher’s duel 2-0 to advance to play Summerville on May, 17. The Stags have a tall order on their plate needing to defeat the top-ranked Green Wave twice in order to advance. The state championship series is scheduled to begin on Monday at the upper state champion s home field. Game two will revert back to the lower state’s team home field on Wednesday. If a third game tie-breaker is needed it will be played at neutral site on Friday (May, 24). After the win Berkley head coach Kelly Dillon shared some thoughts with the HSSR. “In my tenure at Berkeley this is our third trip to the Lower state finals and I am so proud of my team and the adversity they have overcome this season,” said Coach Dillon. “We have had some adversity with the weather and we lost one of our key players to an injury recently ( Savannah Scott ) and we have remained tough and focused on our goals anyway. “We played small ball in the bottom of the 6th because when you need just one run to win you play to win,” said Coach Dillon. “I am very thankful; for a great bunting team. Every time I have asked for it to be put down, they have put it down so I am very proud to our commitment to the cause.” ( Courtlyn Cox delivered a perfect bunt that advanced the runner into scoring position in the bottom of the 6 th inning.) “We know we have a challenge going over to Summerville on Friday needing to win two games and you never know what might happen,” said Coach Dillon. “We are hungry and we are on a mission and we are playing moment to moment so we hope to at our best on Friday.” Chapin head coach Cal Sayger is wrapping up his 7 th season at Chapin. ”we have been fighting the weather all during the play-offs,” said Coach Sayger. “We just made too many mistakes in this game tonight. We have the program on sound footing. We have won back-to-back region titles and I very proud of the commitment all of our players have made to the success tour program.” Coach Sayger is saying good bye to four seniors. They include pitcher Aspen Mayers , Ella Maychiva k, third baseman Andree Dircks , and outfielder Alexia Evans . “These girls have been in the program since the e8th grade a d they will be missed,” said Coach Sayger. The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the 6 th inning. The Stags Rileigh Ballentine led off with a single to center field. Courtlyn Cox’s Sac bunt moved Ballentine over to second base. She moved over to third, on a passed ball, while Brooklyn Moon was batting. Moon singled in Ballentine for the first run of the game. Ansley Riddle then doubled, barely missing a home run against the fence in deep center field. This hit put runners at second and third with one-out. An RBI ground-out by Camden Valicek scored Moon to give Berkeley all the runs they would need to win the game. Berkeley pitcher Reese Watson worked all seven innings, allowing only four hits. Watson’s six strike-outs in the game now gives her 201 on the season in 120 innings pitched with an ERA of 1.20.
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