Patrick Henry hoops teams await tournament fates

  Estill  – Both the girls and boys basketball teams for Parick Henry Academy  are now awaiting their fates in their respective SCISA AAA state tournaments.

          The PHA girls finished 13-7 overall in the regular season and and went 3-3 in Region 4, while the Patriot boys were also finished 3-3 in region play but with an 8-15 overall record.

          They are to find out today how things fall with the state tournaments. The girls first round is scheuled for February 14 with the boys first rournd wet for February 15..

           “I feel we have too much talent to be 2-3 in region,” said Patrick Henry girls head coach

Anthony Creech prior to the Patriots win over Colleton Prep Academy in their regular-season finale. “The lack of effort at times over the course of a game hurts us.

           “We’ve got to stop being in a panic mode. We’ve got to leave it out on the court and have fun. That has to happen in order for us to win a state championship.”

           PHA, which brought back four returning starters, is led by the senior duo of Lillian Lucas and Laney Futch. Lucas, who recently scored her 1,000th career point, is averaging a team high 15.2 points per game to go with a 6.2 rebounding average, 4.2 steals and 3.6 assists. Futch was leading in rebounding at 12.3 while scoring at an 8.5 clip. She also had 3.2 steals and a team high 2.2 blocked shots.

  Sequoia Sexton was averaging 6.4 points and 5.5 rebounds, and Emilee Stanley  was averaging 6.4 points and 2.7 steals.

           If the Patriot girls are to be successful in the postseason, it comes down to one thing in Creech’s eyes.

           “We pretty much have to be playing as a team,” he said. “We have to have more effort on both offense and defense. We have to get more players involved on offense along with Lucas. If we can get three or four involved on offense, we can be really dificult.”

           For the Patrick Henry boys, head coach Claude Terry said the lack of depth has been an issue. It has cost the Patriots on more than one occasion.

“We play hard in every game,” Terry said. “We’ve been in most games until late in the second

half, then fatigue, turnovers and trying to force things catch up with us.”

Rowen Croft  led PHA in scoring with a 19.7 average to go along with 7.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists

and 2.8 steals. Trey Adkins was averaging 10.6 points an 7.7 rebounds. Daivon Glover  was averaging 11.5 points and 3.2 assists, and Mikell Tucker Mathis was averaging 10.2 points and a team high 8.6 rebounds.

Terry is hoping the Patriots get a chance to move on to the state tournament.

           “My words to my team as we are winding down the season is to keep playing hard but also understanding game situations and when to speed up or slow down the pace of the game,” Terry said. "We still haven’t had that big game where everyone is playing their best, and if we can put it together we might make some noise in the playoffs.

           “We have some good athletes on this team and when we’re playing well we feel like we can

contend with any team.”