Christ Church boys defeat Fox Creek to claim the SCHSL Class AAA state title.

BY WORTHY EVANS CONTRIBUTING WRITER FLORENCE — Saturday’s 3A lower state championship game at the Florence Center marked the fourth time Fox Creek and Keenan played each other this season. For the third time in the four meetings, the Predators got the best of the defending 3A champion Raiders in a 75-68 victory. Fox Creek (25-5) plays Christ Church for the 3A state championship at the Colonial Life Arena in Columbia Friday at 3:30 p.m. Christ Church beat Mountain View Prep 61-47 for the upper state championship Friday night. Five Fox Creek players scored in double figures, with junior Justin Vining leading the way with 18 points. Junior Randy Robinson had 13 points, junior Chuck Schwarz scored 12 points, and seniors Chanze Allen and Keori Atwell had 11 points apiece. “Randy Robinson had a great first quarter, a great first four minutes of the game,” second-year head coach Tim Butler said. “Justin Vining is an incredible point guard, I don’t think he can get enough credit. I wanted to go deeper on the bench but the guys got so hot I couldn’t really go into it. Our seniors and juniors and these guys put their egos aside and came into one. I just love this group.” Those starters felt the heat themselves from the red-hot shooting of Keenan sophomore Antoine Caughman , who had 22 points before fouling out with 5:25 left. Senior Broderick Anderson Jr. and junior Marcus Simpson Jr. had 13 points. While Fox Creek maintained a steady lead throughout the game, the opponents’ familiarity with one another kept the Raiders within striking distance. “It’s incredibly difficult,” Butler said about facing a rival for the fourth time. “Those guys came with a different look and we weren’t prepared for it for a little bit, and they also hit some good shots, some big shots. We thought that when No.4 fouled out, they were going to go away, but they never did. That’s a testament to their coaching staff and their focus. That’s a great team.” Even though the game’s top scorer was on the bench and Fox Creek led 57-46 at the time, the Raiders managed a 10-1 scoring run late in the game. That run brought Keenan from being behind 64-51 at the 2:02 mark to a 65-61 deficit with 1:02 left to play. Only a late technical foul called after a personal foul disrupted Keenan’s rally. Those errors brought Allen to the line for both sets of foul shots and he made all four to give the Predators a 69-61 lead. Keenan was still not finished. In the final 37 seconds the Raiders got a 3-pointer and two additional baskets from Anderson to make it 71-68 with 11 seconds left. By then the Raiders were forced to foul to stop the clock, and Vining and Kobe Sims were both 2-for-2 at the free-throw line to close out the win. “That’s a well-coached team,” Butler said. Coach Zach Norris does a great job and those kids are incredible talents and basketball players. They’re all probably going to play college basketball, and they just never quit.” Coach Norris was not on the court after being suspended from coaching for a rules violation last summer.  Assistant Alex Harper , who was the acting head coach this season, said he last talked to Norris before the game. He said Norris talked about will and desire to be the intangible factors of the game. “Will and desire. Just trying to get the kids on the same level,” Harper said. “Whatever team wants it most is going to win, and that’s pretty much what it came down to, will and desire. (Because of Norris’ suspension), I feel like everybody counted us out but we still made a push. We still had a chance to make it, we just didn’t get over that hump.” Harper added that his team’s fouls hurt the Raiders chances of victory. “We talked about it all season, we have to play without fouls,” Harper said. “I’m not going to say it’s the ref’s fault, but we just had to play without fouls and that’s not what we did today.” The Predators indeed capitalized on their many trips to the foul line. Fox Creek was 9-for-11 from the foul line in the first half, and a whopping 27-for-33 in the second half for a total of 34-of-44 for the game. Keenan by contrast was 6-for-9 from the free-throw line in the first half and 12-for-14 in the second half for an 18-for-23 total. Being doubled up on foul shots hurt the Raiders’ ability to overcome the Predators, who led 35-25 at the half. “It goes back to you’ve got to play without fouling,” Harper said. “They were able to build a 10-point lead on us in the first half just with us fouling.” The Predators join 4A lower-state champion North Augusta in the action this week at Colonial Life Arena. The Yellow Jackets (26-3) beat Bluffton 57-38 Saturday to play South Pointe in the 4A state final Saturday at 6. “North Augusta gets a lot of credit, they’re a great, well-coached team,” Butler said. “But now we’ve got two teams from North Augusta to get to play for a state championship, and it’s a great feeling.”

By Dennis Brunson hssr.com Associate Editor North Augusta – The Fox Creek High School boys basketball team won four of its first six games and is in hopes of having another strong season The Predators have won 39 games over the past two seasons and reached the quarterfinals of the AAA state playoffs both years. FCHS was averaging 69 points a game with three players scoring in double figures. Senior Chanze Allen was leading the way at 14.0 followed by junior Justin Vining at 12.5 and junior Kobe Sims at 11.5 Junior Randy Robinson was the leading rebounder at 5.7 while scoring at a 6.8 clip. Senior Keori Atwell was averaging 6.7. Vining was the assists leader at 3.2. FOX CREEK GIRLS OPEN 4-5 The Fox Creek girls basketball team won four of its first nine games. However, points have been hard to come by for the Predators as they are averaging just 37 points a contest. Fox Creek returns its top three scorers from last season. Junior Jada Jennings , who averaged over 10 a game last season, is leading the way with 9.2 per game. Sophomore Mia Price , who led the team with a 10.6 average last year, is off to a slow start. She is only putting up 3.6 a game. The second leading scorer is senior Avery Schwarz at 8.3 per game. She is also the second leading rebounder at 5.6 The leading rebounder is junior Maya Kryshtalowych at 7.9. As she was last year, Kryshtalowych is the third leading scorer at 5.2. Jennings is averaging 4.2 rebounds. Fox Creek is looking to improve upon a 9-14 overall record and a 4-4 mark in region play. The Predators had to go on the road in the firt round of the playoffs and lost to Hanahan 45-38. 2 PREDATORS SELECTED FOOTBALL ALL-REGION Running back Bryson Crawford and offensive lineman/defensive lineman John Truesdell were the Fox Creek football players selected to the All-Region 4-AAA team. Crawford, who is a junior, had a tremendous season. He rushed for 1,391 yards and 21 touchdowns on 198 carries. He also caught three passes for 21 yards and a score. Truesdell, a senior, finished with 50 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, a team high six sacks, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. Predators who were honorable mention were junior athlete Mehki Quiller , senior outside linebacker Noah Gaines , senior offensive lineman Alec Beck , sophomore outside linebacker Kamal Grant , senior defensive back Riley Howell and junior defensive back Char’tavious Weaver .

John Truesdell places in two events in AAA boys track state meet

By Neill Kirkpatrick Special to HSSR Hanahan – Nothing in baseball causes a coach more stress than when his pitching staff can’t find the strike zone as was the case for Fox Creek in the second and third innings Monday night as home standing Hanahan took full advantage by scoring 9 runs and then they had to withstand a Fox Creek rally to advance into the lower state final with a 9-8 win. “I’m proud of our guys. We got down five in the second inning but they didn’t hang their heads. We are a young team but these guys never give up, they never stop fighting and they always compete,” said Head coach Skylar Hunter. The Hawks will take on region rival and the HSSR’s second ranked team Oceanside Collegiate (26-5). The teams have played three times this season with the Landsharks winning all three. The Hawks will have to win twice to advance to their eight state championships series and third in a row. Fox Creek ends the season at 23-7. The Predators will also say good bye to nine seniors that were the backbone of back-to-back region and district champions. “I’m proud of this team. They battled to the end and showed a lot of grit all game,” said Head Coach Roby Gillespie. “This senior class has set the precedent for future teams. We tell the guys ‘Good isn’t good enough, strive to be great’ and this team did that every day.” After an uneventful first inning, the Predators came alive in the second. Bradley Anderson led off the inning with a single. After a strikeout, Will Frischmann stepped to the plate and launched a bomb to right center for a two-run tater and a 2-0 lead. Hanahan starter Chris Polm then walked the next three Fox Creek batters. The first batter that walked Jackson Wright was thrown out by the Hawks Hudson Sprovero for the second out of the inning. Caleb Waters had an infield single for Fox Creek to load the bases with two out. Will Fountain would score on an error and then Anderson plated two runs with a single pushing the lead to 5-0. The Hawks would respond in their half of the second with help from Fox Creek starting pitcher Devin Hillary. With one out Hillary walked Wyatt Muirheid. Zac Jimenez singled to put runners on first and second. Hillary then struck out the next batter before he couldn’t find the strike and walked the next three Hanahan which resulted in two runs cutting the Predators lead to 5-2. In the bottom of the third the Hawks would take the lead with a seven-run inning. It started with a lazy fly out to right. Hillary then walked the next two Hawks. Two wild pitches and a passed ball moved both runners up to second and third. Jimenez singled to scored Polm from third and still leaving the bases loaded.  Gunnar Haulbrooks came up next and singled scoring Muirheid and Jimenez and the game was tied at 5. The inning continued as Tripp Gallus had infield single and Joe Furse walked to load the bases. Sprovero came up next and promptly deposited the ball over the left field fence for a grand slam giving the Hawks a 9-5 lead. Fox Creek’s would bring in their fourth pitcher of the game Audyn Randall, who would get Jimenez to ground out to second base to end the inning. Randall pitched the finals 3 1/3 innings for Fox Creek and shutdown the Hawks offense. He struck out the side in the fourth and gave up only one hit to keep the Predators in the game. “Audyn maybe pitched four or five innings for us all. He came up to me and said coach give me the ball, I know I can throw strikes. He got up there and did his job to keep us in the game,” said Fox Creek coach Gillespie. Meanwhile, Hanahan brought in Haulbrooks in the second inning and he pitched well until the fifth inning. “Gunnar did a good job of settling us down in the middles innings and he also a big hit to bring two runs,” coach Hunter said. The Predators would draw closer to the Hawks as they scored twice to cut the lead to 9-7. Chance Weathersbee singled with one out and moved to second when Wright drew two out walk. Will Fountain would score both runners when he hit a triple into the right field corner. Hillary would cut the lead to one in the top of the sixth when he hit a solo shot over the right centerfield fence and suddenly the Predators were down only one at 9-8. The Hawks made a pitching change after the home run going to lefty Nolyn Nickels. Nickels would walk the first batter he faced but then got the final four outs of the game including striking out the last two batters and the Hawks were headed to the Lower State finals.

By Dennis Brunson hssr.com Associate Editor North Augusta – All in all, it was a pretty good season for the Fox Creek High School boys basketball team. The Predators, in their first season back in AAA due to reclassification after a 2-year hiatus, finished the year with a 19-11 overall record and a 6-2 mark in Region 3, good for second place and a home game in the first round of the state playoffs. To make things even better, Fox Creek advanced to the quarterfinals. It defeated Hanahan 88-54 in the opener before knocking off Orangeburg-Wilkinson 68-59 in the second round. The Predators lost to Loris 57-52 in the quarterfinals. And to put the cherry on top, Fox Creek had two players selected to the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association AAA All-State team. They are both sophomores, Kobe Sims and Justin Vining . Sims led the Predators in scoring, averaging 17.6 points per game. He also led the team in steals at 2.2 to go along with 1.9 assists and 3.2 rebounds. Vining was the assists leader at 5.0 while scoring at a 13.2 clip and pulling down 5.0 rebounds. He also averaged 1.6 steals. Senior Brelan Baskett was the leading rebounder at 7.4 and was the third double-figure scorer with a 10.2 average. He also averaged 1.4 assists and 1.7 steals. Sophomore Gavin Baskett just missed out on being in double figures with a 9.4 average. Senior Montez Tillman averaged 4.4 rebounds and 2.5 points in 29 games. JENNINGS, KRYSTALOWYCH GIRLS BASKETBALL ALL-REGION PICKS Jada Jennings and Maya Krystalowych , a pair of sophomores, were selected to the All-Region 3 girls basketball team. Jennings averaged 10.2 points and 4.9 rebounds Krystalowych led the Predators in rebounding with a 10.9 average while scoring at a 7.3 clip. She also averaged a team high 3.2 blocked shots Freshman Mia Price led Fox Creek in scoring with a 10.6 average and in assists at 2.4. Freshman Mariah Price averaged 5.0 points and 2.3 assists. The Predators finished 9-14 overall and 4-4 in region play. They lost to Hanahan in the first round of the playoffs by a 45-39 count. Head coach Aaron Ray sees the season as a positive step forward for his young squad, which had no seniors and just one junior. “We didn’t have a perfect season, but we grew, we fought and we laid the foundation,” Ray said. “Next season, we build on it -- stronger, smarter and hungrier.”

Predators led by sophomores Kobe Sims and Justin Vining