By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Gaffney — Mark Huff has begun his third season as the head girls’ basketball coach at Gaffney and despite being 4-3 early on his young team is gaining ground with every game they play.
Huff won five state titles in a 21-year tenure as the Gaffney boy’s coach before leaving for coaching stints at JL Mann and Southside. He retuned to the hardwood three seasons ago to take over the Lady Indians program and it is just a matter of time before his teams earn spots once again in the gold medal round at the end of the season. All total, Coach Huff has 31 years of head coaching experience with a collective 536 wins over his career.
Gaffney is 4-3 after seven games into the 2023-24 season. They have defeated Union County twice (101-16 and 87-15), Clover (5-50) and Northwestern (77-16) Their three losses are to JL Mann twice (65-47 and 50-44) and most recently to Riverside (60-54)
“The main difference in the boy’s game versus the girl’s game is that the boys play above the rim while the girls paly below the basket,” said Coach Huff. “The speed of the game is a little quicker for the boys also. However, the X’es and the O’s are the same for both.”
Coach Huff likes to play a two guard, two post and one forward set-up with his team. This year’s team is young but talented. They are led by 5-10 freshman post player Tianah Hopper who is averaging 19.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.3 steals seven games into the 2023-24 season.
“Hopper gets up and down the court really well and she handles the ball really well,” said Coach Huff. “I certainly feel like she is a next level player.”
Sophomore 5-10 forward Shiriah Harris is averaging 14.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.5 steals and three assists a game. “Harris has a high ceiling also and she is getting better with every game she plays,” said Coach Huff.
Junior wing Izzabella Surratt (5-8) is averaging 9.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.5 steals and three steals a game. Freshman PG Lauren Mathis leads the team in assists at nearly four per game, and in the fewest turnovers. Rounding out the starting five is junior Wing Elena Bedana averaging 5.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2,5 steals and 3.5 assists per game.
The first post player off the bench is 6-1 senior Diamyard Buckson who leads the team in blocks. The first Wing player off the bench is sophomore Korbyn Lydia. The next two in all the bench are usually sophomore 5-11 forward Gaby Lee and 8th grader Kaylin Houze.
Other key reserves include sophomore guard Kymora Pearson along with sophomore guard Kourtney Caraway.
“Our first goal is always to win the region which gets us home games in the play-offs,” said Coach Huff. “Our second goal is to get a little better with every practice and with every game.
“If we can play as good as are capable of playing then I feel like we can compete for a region title and make a deep run in the playoffs,” said Coach Huff. “We schedule a very tough early season games with schools like Riverside, JL Mann and Clover to help us get ready to play competitive teams in our region like Dorman, Spartanburg and Byrnes.”
Gaffney will participate in a holiday tournament and will play Greenwood on December, 23rd. After that they will play Riveside on January, 3rd after the team returns from the holidays.
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