Goose Creek Advances To Play Rival Berkeley In AAAAA Division II Lower State Girls Basketball Finals After Win Over Chapin
Gators come away with a 59-34 triumph
Goose Creek-The Goose Creek Gators (25-2) Div. II AAAAA girls’ basketball team advanced to the Lower State finals against arch-rival Berkeley at the Florence Civic Center this Friday with a 59-34 win over visiting Chapin (16-10) on Tuesday night.
Berkeley (21-5) advanced with a 58-52 win at North Myrtle Beach on Monday night.
After the win, Goose Creek head coach Jabari Deas shared his feelings. “We knew that if continued to play our game, and if we stayed true to our principals, that things would turn our way and start to fall, and that a great player like Madeline Dates would find her groove and that is what happened tonight,” said Coach Deas. ” We stayed true to who we are, and things turned out well for us.”
When asked about the game with region foe Berkeley on Friday, Coach Deas said, “Get ready for Ali-Frazier III, right?” he said. “We are excited and looking forward to the challenge of playing in the lower state finals. It should be an exciting game and we will be ready.”
The Gators were tied at 10 with the Eagles after the first period but outscored their opponent 14-8 in the second period to lead 24-18 at the half. While the first half was dominated by defense the second half was much more freewheeling, and that seemed to benefit Goose Creek, who got 10 of their 21 third quarter points from talented freshman Madeline Dates who came into the game averaging 20.1 points a game. The Gators took a 45-28 lead into the final period and won going away.
Dates ended up with 20 points in the win. Goose Creek also got 13 points from senior point guard Aiyanna Moses, 11 points from sophomore guard Celeste Griffin, along with 8 points from freshman guard Aubrey Downey. Senior forward Natalia Madison-Ladson and junior guard Jaliaya Jacobs rounded out the Gator, scoring with four and three points, respectively.
Chapin was led in scoring by senior center Sami Stephenson with 10 points while freshman point guard Amoria Wright contributed 8 points while junior forward Ava Love scored six points. Sophomore forward Azauria Wright and freshman guard Alaya Douglas closed out the Chapin points index with five points each.
Chapin head coach Terence Johnson was upbeat and positive after the season ending loss. “We got into a little bit of foul trouble early with some of our key players both on offense and defense and that threw us off a little bit,” said Coach Jones who came to Chapin this season after winning the Class A state title at Denmark-Olar last season. “We stayed strong in the first half and only trailed by six points, and it could have been worse. It gave us a chance to come and work hard to win the game in the second half.”
Coach Jones praised the play of senior leader Sami Stephenson who will be moving on to play at Lander University next season after averaging nearly 10 points and 7.5 rebounds this season. “Sami was a great leader for us, and we also lost probably our best senior player, Reagan Haggard, to an ACL injury around Christmas, and she is headed to East Tennessee State to play basketball next season.
“So, we have been playing without one of our best players for a while now and are pleased to have made it to the third round of the playoffs, and to have 16 wins in my transition from a 1- A program to 5-A girls’ basketball,” said Coach Jones. “Our success just shows the growth between our younger players and our older players with everyone stepping up to the challenge. We have something to build on for next season.”
