Blythewood storms into the state AAAAA Division I finals
Blythewood senior, TJ Lewis hits a three point shot in fourth quarter.
By Neill Kirkpatrick
Special to the HSSR
Florence – There were a little over five minutes to go in the upper state AAAAA division I championship game and the Bengals of Blythewood trailed defending state AAAAA champion Dorman 44-33 when they turned up their defensive pressures and rode the shooting of TJ Lewis to finish the game on a 13-1 run to advance to next week’s AAAAA state championship game with a 46-45 win.
“Right now, I am trying to put it together. It is hard for me to believe,” said Blythewood coach Zeke Washington. “Dorman has a great program and they have had our number so many times. We played them in the first 5A state championship game. We just happened to win this one.”
Coach continued, “To get over the hump and get to a state championship is big but give all the credit to the players and the assistant coaches. I wish I could take credit, but I was just sitting there, going along for the ride.”
The Bengals (23-5) will head to their second state championship game where they will take on region rival and defending AAAA state champion Ridge View a 63-43 winner over James Island. The two teams met twice during the regular season with Ridge View coming out on top.
Dorman finishes the year at 24-5 with the loss. They captured their eighth region championship in the past nine years and with four starters back they will look to be back in the same position next year.
"This is a tough loss for us. I hate it for our fans and those kids in our locker room. They gave me their all this season. I just hate that we couldn't make a play down the stretch but they will learn from this and come back next year, " Dorman head coach Thomas Ryan said. “Our inexperience really showed down the stretch.”
Saturday’s final contest saw the Bengals jump out to a quick five-point lead led by Tyler Stephens and TJ Lewis. The duo would score all of Blythewood’s 14 first quarter points with Lewis hitting two threes
Meanwhile, Dorman’s Jaden Johnson was doing his best to stay even with the Stephens and Lewis as he scored 9 of Dorman’s 11 first quarter points.
Johnson tied the score at 14 at the start of the second quarter when he scored three the old fashion way. He would score 8 points in the second quarter.
The Cavaliers would take their first lead of the game at 21-18 when Grant Aiken-Ross nailed a three pointer.
The Bengals were having a hard time scoring in the second quarter so Dorman led 25-21 as the teams headed to the half.
The third quarter saw Dorman increased their lead to 10 at 34-24 with 4:20 to go in the quarter when coach Washington called time out.
Terrion Mack would score seven points in the quarter to keep the Bengals within striking distance, however, the Cavaliers would lead heading into the fourth quarter 37-30.
The first three minutes of the fourth quarter saw the Cavaliers trying to pull away as they built their lead to 13 at 44-33 with five minutes.
A two-point basket by Torrean Sims cut the lead to nine with 4:05 when it became Lewis time.
Lewis, who was held scoreless in the third quarter, came alive as he was fouled on a three-point attempt where he made all three free throws. He then nailed a three-pointer and Javarius Wyche was fouled on his put back attempt. He nailed both free throws to bring the Bengals within two at 44-42 with 1:35 to go in the game.
Coach Washington called time out. “TJ told me in the time out to just give him the ball and he would take care of the rest.”
After Johnson for Dorman hit one of two free throws to push the lead back to three at 45-42 with 30 seconds left in the game.
Blythewood came down and ran a set play for Lewis, who came off a screen and made a pump fake that sent the Dorman defender flying by him. He gathered himself and hit nothing but net on the shot to tie the game at 45.
Dorman would miss its next shot and Blythewood got the rebound and called time out with 8.3 seconds to go in the contest.
Lewis got the ball and raced up the left side of the court where he was fouled at midcourt with 2.4 seconds to go. Dorman was in the penalty so Lewis headed to the line for two shots. He made the first to give the Bengals their first lead since the second quarter at 46-45.
Lewis’s next free throw was long but it bounced high off the rim. Lewis went up in the middle of four Dorman players for the rebound. The ball went out of bounds off one of the Dorman players with .04 seconds left. A quick touch of the ball on the inbounds play and the Bengals were off to their second state championship game appearance.
