Crestwood girls basketball team starts 0-3 in region play

Sumter – The Crestwood High School girls basketball team has struggled comng out of the gate

in the first season with Shaquanda Miller-McCray as the head coach.

The Lady Knights owned a 4-9 overall record and a 0-3 mark in Region 5-AAAA heading into

the new year. Things actually look a lot better than they did after the first two weeks, however.

Crestwood lost its first seven games of the season, even though four of them came by eight points

or less. The Lady Knights finally got in the win column with a 64-26 victory over Belton-Honea Path.

They followed that up with three straight victories before losing to Blythewood 65-48 in a holiday

tournament. That was followed by a 47-43 loss to Wilson on Tuesday.

Miller-McCray is the third head coach for the Crestwood girls in three seasons. Miller-McCray, a

former standout player for the Lady Knights, was hired to replace Bridget Parker-Richardson. She

chose to step down after one season despite leading Crestwood to a 16-9 record and a trip to the

quarterfinals of the AAA state playoffs.

Crestwood is led by senior Saniya Williams and senior London Vaughn. Williams was

averaging 18.0 points per game to go with 2.8 rebounds and 2.0 steals.

Williams played in the first three games of the season before missing five. She came back with a

vengeance, scoring 33 points in a 62-58 victory over Seneca on December 23. Williams had scored 35

total points in her first three games.

She followed that with a pair of 20-point games in a 57-36 victory over Scott’s Branch and a 54-

48 triumph over Timberland.

Vaughn is averaging 13.7 points while leading the Lady Knights in assists at a 4.3 clip and in

steals at 2.8. She’s also pulling down 4.2 rebounds.

Senior Jonee McClain leads in rebounding with 5.9 a contest. She is also averaging 5.0 points a

game. Junior Javiah Martin is the third leading scorer with an 8.3 average.

Other players getting regular time are senior Mikayla Edmonds, junior Diamond Covington,

junior Kemoni Davis and senior Jer’Niya Alston. Edmonds is averaging 2.3 points and 3.9 rebounds,

Covington 1.6 points and 3.2 rebounds, Davis 3.0 points and 3.8 rebounds and Alston 3.9 rebounds.

Other members of the team are junior Diamond Singleton, junior Maliiah Montgomery and

senior Treasure McDonald.

Crestwood is competing in AAAA this season after reclassification. It is joined in Region 5 by

Darlington, Hartsville, Lakewood, Lower Richland, South Florence and Wilson.

The Lady Knights opened their region schedule with a 44-40 loss to South Florence before fallng

to Lower Richland, ranked sixth in the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association AAAA

preseason poll, 65-18. Wilson. was ranked fourth and Darlington was also ranked in the preseason poll at No. 7.

CRESTWOOD BOYS START 11-1

The Crestwood boys basketball team started the season ranked fourth in the AAAA preseason

poll under head coach Aric Samuel. The Knights won their first 11 games before falling to Atlantic

Collegiate Academy, the No. 1 team in AA, 67-61 in the championship game of the Pepsi Carolina

Classic in Florence.

Crestwood's led by Teon Tindal and Shannon Davis, who were both selected among the Top 5

Seniors in AAAA by the SCBCA.

The Knights improved to 12-1 with a 56-51 win over No. 2 Wilson on Tuesday. Two other

region foes, South Florence and Darlington were ranked ninth and 10th , respectively.