Gaffney Girl’s Basketball Team Among Best Teams In AAAAA This Season At 13-0
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Gaffney — With six state titles on his resume, as a boy’s head basketball coach, Gaffney girl’s head coach Mark Huff (598-232) appears to have a roster full of talented and dedicated players as the Lady Indians have come out of the holiday break at 13-0.
The Indians appeared destined for a championship run a year ago until forward Shirah Harris broke a bone in her foot near the end of the season. The team rallied and won the region title on a huge win over Byrnes in the final regular season game.
“Shirah is back and 100 per cent healthy,” said Coach Huff. “She is one of our captains and she is just a great kid to have on your team. She plays hard all the time and she is a great rebounder and she goes to the basket hard to score baskets inside.”
Through 13 games Harris is leading the team in scoring at 19.1 points a game, 8.1 rebounds, and she is shooting 55 per cent form the field.
“When Harris went down last year, Tinah “TT” Hopper picked up where Harris left off and carried us the rest of the season,” said Coach Huff. “She is having a great season for us right now and she and Shirah give us two six-foot players on the inside.”
Hopper is averaging 16.9 points and 9.2 rebounds a game after 13 games of the 2024-25 season.
Coach Huff describes sophomore point guard Lauren Mathis as “the quarterback of the team.” Mathis is a third- year starter and is only a sophomore. She is averaging 7 points and 2.1 points a game. Mathis is also an all-state tennis player.
Junior small forward Korbyn Lydia was an all-region performer on the softball team this past Spring and she is also an excellent basketball player. Lydia is averaging 10 points a game including 2.9 assists and 2.6 steals a game.
The other captain on the team is senior wing player Izzy Sarratt. “She is one of our best all-ball defenders and she has worked hard to improve her scoring this season,” Coach Huff. Sarratt comes into January averaging 7.2 points, two rebounds,3.8 assists and 2.6 steals a game.
One of the first wing subs off the bench is freshman Kaylin “Kay Kay” Houze. She is averaging five points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.6 steals a game.
One of the first post subs off the bench is senior Chiara Terlizzi and she is currently averaging 2.2 points and 2.1 rebounds a game.
The rest of the team is made up of senior forward Kymora Pearson who can play forward or in the post. Junior Kourtney Caraway is a point guard and freshman Taylor Smith is a power forward up from the junior varsity.
Gaffney began the season on November, 22 with a 70-30 win over Travelers Rest. They went on to beat Wren (72-40),Fountain Inn (60-20),Clover (43-37), Fort Mill (56-39), Wade Hampton (81-13),Fort Mill again (70-49), Eastside (68-17), Greer (76-26), Cross Creek (67-40), East Gaston (72-6), and Irmo (68-36) on December, 30.
“Our defense has really improved over last season, and we are playing the girls on defense like I use to with my boy’s teams,” said Coach Huff. “We pressure full-court and play hard the entire game.
“This team has a lot of experienced players,” said Coach Huff. “Lauren played 11 games on the varsity as a 7th grader and TT played 16 games for us in the 8th grade and Korbyn played on the varsity as a freshman,” said Coach Huff. “Izzy played a lot on the varsity her freshman year also.”
One situation did concern Coach Huff in a recent game. “We were playing in a tournament in the Bennett Bennett Memorial at Clover High and we had a 32-8 lead over Irmo at the half,” said Coach Huff. “In the third quarter we had a lull, kike we took our foot of the gas and you hate to see this as a coach. We need to play hard all 32 minutes.”
Does Coach Huff feel like this team can win a state championship. “If we can stay healthy, we want to defend our region title and be playing our best basketball going into the play-offs,” said Coach Huff. “We are certainly capable of a state title run but we have a lot of basketball to play.”
Speaking of that, Gaffney will play Byrnes and Dorman in early January after Spring break. “I just hope we keep winning and keep playing hard,” said Coach Huff.
Coach Huff said he is excited about adding Bubba Price to his coaching staff this season, “Bubba played on one of my state championship teams in 2009 and he decided to come back home to Gaffney this season and he has brought a lot of good ideas with him that we are using.”
Coach Huff’s other assistants are Jasmine Kearse and Julian Wright.
