Flora’s final game not indicative of program’s bright future
By WORTHY EVANS
HSSR Contributing Writer
Columbia - Yes. The 4A state championship game for the A.C. Flora girls basketball team was just plain bad.
The Falcons fell 62-32 to Riverside Saturday night at the Florence Center. The Warriors outrebounded them 59-33, lashed out a 16-0 run to start the third quarter and pushed their lead to double digits.
Falcons leading scorer Terriana Gray, a senior who averaged 17.8 points per game going into Saturday, scored just six points. A.C. Flora’s shooting was 10-for-49 or 20.4 percent, on the night.
Head coach Jacob Thompson knows these facts. He said his team is well aware that it was not the best day for Falcons basketball.
Thompson and the girls also know that this year was the team’s best year in a long time. A.C. Flora finished Region 5-4A 8-2 and in second place for the second straight year.
The Falcons ran through the playoffs and beat region champion Ridge View 47-42 to win the lower state championship—going one game better than last season, when Westwood beat the Falcons for the lower state crown.
They finished the season 23-8 and in spite of the loss to the Warriors, A.C. Flora’s girls program promises a bevy of good seasons to come.
“That group right there, no matter what you say to them, they’re going to go do what they need to do, and that’s what they’ve done all year,” Thompson said. “So getting here is a testament to them. They deserve all that credit, all that love, all the support that we’ve got from all these fans who showed up tonight, they deserve that.”
Thompson has a great respect for his seniors, who with the seniors last year were the ones who put the program on a good foundation in the first place. Among them is Gray, an Alabama A&M signee who scored a team-high 13 points against Ridge View in the lower state championship win. She and the seniors leave the program on a high note, Thompson said.
“They’re so amazing. They’re going to do great things. Not just with Terriana Gray going to Alabama A&M, but Jazmine McDonough-Craft and Emily Curnell and the other three seniors Rihanna Hylton, Juell Wethington, and Ruqiya Bashir, They’re going to be amazing young women. And the group coming back is not going to want to feel this again. So hopefully that drives them.”
The Riverside loss may well drive the returners next year to go one game better—as the 2023-24 Falcons went one game better than last year. Even though Saturday at the Florence Center did not go as hoped, Thompson said the girls proved themselves repeatedly over the season, and did everything they could to make the program better than before.
“I told them from the beginning that they’re special, and I mean that,” Thompson said. “Tonight didn’t turn out like we wanted. Riverside’s a really good team. They did a lot of great things and frustrated us at times to where we missed some shots. But how much I love and respect that group of girls in there, I can’t put it into words.”
The A.C. Flora boys basketball team finished 20-6 and 7-3, third place behind Westwood and Ridge View. While they did not claim the region title, the Falcons played spoiler to the Blazers, beating them 46-45 Feb. 9 and handing the region championship to Westwood.
The Falcons beat Colleton County 63-49, but fell 44-35 to Wilson in the second round.
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