Crestwood girls basketball team rounding into form
Crestwood set up to be member of Region 5-AAAA
Sumter – The Crestwood High School girls basketball team appears to have hit its stride.
The Lady Knights started the season with a 5-6 record, albeit against a very difficult schedule. Since beginning its Region 6-AAA schedule, Crestwood had won eight of nine games overall and were 7-1 in region play.
That was good for second place in the region behind defending AAA state champion and current High School Sports Report No. 1 Camden.
Crestwood is in its first year under head coach Bridget Richardson. The former South Florence assistant said it has taken some time for her players to adjust to her and vice versa.
“We started out kind of slow, but i think now they have learned me and I have learned them,” Richardson said. “I think now we are on the same page with everything.
“We are learning each other, so it has been an adjustment. Each game gets better and better.”
The Lady Knights are a young team with only two seniors on the roster. The top three scorers are all juniors in Saniya Williams, London Vaughn and Javiah Martin.
Williams led the way in both scoring and rebounding with per-game averages of 17.1 points and 7.8 points, respectively. She was also averaging 2.2 steals per contest.
Vaughn was averaging a team high 2.6 assists to go with an even 10.0 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.6 steals. Martin led in steals with an even 3.0 while averaging 8.6 points.
The two seniors, Alannah Dixon and Liliana Ignacio, are part of the rotation. Dixon is averaging an even 4.0 points while Ignacio is averaging 3.3 points.
Others who had played in at least 16 of the first 17 games were sophomore Kemoni Davis (1.6 ppg, 3.2 rpg), junior Faith Madison (1.1 ppg), junior Mikayla Edmonds (0.8 ppg), junior Jonee McClain (1.3 ppg) and junior Jerniya Alston (0.8 ppg).
Richardson said she doesn’t have any particular defense in which she is set in stone in using.
“It depends on who we’re playing,” Richardson. “We adjust what we do to the opponent that we’re up against.”
Richardson believes if her squad plays a steady style it can finish the season in strong fashion.
“They’ve played as a team and with more consistency of late than they had,” she said. “I think we will fare pretty well as long as we play as a team and we play with consistency.”
CRESTWOOD SET TO MOVE UP TO REGION 5-AAAA WITH RECLASSICATION
Assuming there aren’t any last-second shakeups to the South Carolina High School League’s region placements after realignment, Crestwood will be part of Region 5-AAAA for the next two school years.
Crestwood will be joined by six other teams in Region 5, three of which remain as AAAA schools and three others that moved up from AAA like Crestwood. The former AAA schools are Lakewood, Darlington and Lower Richland with the other schools being Hartsville, South Florence and Wilson.
This will be the third time Crestwood has been part of AAAA. Prior to the past four seasons in AAA, Crestwood competed at AAAA for four seasons. Also, when Crestwood first opened, it did so as a AAAA school.
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