North Augusta’s 2-3 Zone Helps Them Defeat Taller Wilson 55-44 In SCHSL AAAA Lower State Boys’ Basketball Finals
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Florence—The North Augusta (26-1) boys’ basketball team packed into a 2-3 zone defense against a taller Wilson High team in the SCHSL AAAA Lower State Finals at the Sumter Civic Center on Monday and the Jackets prevailed 55-44 to advance to the gold medal round.
North Augusta will now face Lancaster who defeated Wren 61-57 on Monday in the Florence Civic Center on Friday March, 7 at 4 p.m.
Wilson started the game on a crowd-pleasing slam dunk by Josh Leonard and the two teams went on to dead-lock at 13 each by the end of the first quarter. North Augusta out-scored Wilson 13-6 in the second period to take a 26-19 lead at the break.
Quh Webb enjoyed a dunk of his own for NA with 3:25 left in the third period that put the Jackets up 34-25. One key play before the end of the third period was the foul of NA’s Cameron Humphrey with just .03 left in the quarter while he was attempting a three- point shot. He made all three free throws to put NA up 39-28 entering the final period.
While Wilson won the final period 16-14 it was not enough to overcome the 11-point deficit entering the final period.
North Augusta head coach Tony Harrell shared his thoughts after the big win. “Dunbar (Daron) has been dominant player all year and he is a great player, our Region Player of the Year, and he is a three- time all-state player and he is also a North-Carolina-South Carolina Select all-star selection.
“He knows how to move without the ball to get to his spots,” said Coach Harrell. “I am glad he is on my team.” Dunbar led NA with 15 points for the game.
“We are excited to finally being joining our girl’s team in the state finals,” said Coach Harrell. “They have been doing it for years so it feels great to see the boy’s team finally join them in the finals.
Wilson enjoyed a height advantage over NA. “We adjusted out defense to try and keep them out of the paint,” said Coach Harrell. They had a size advantage. We try to zoned in and we took our chances on them not making a lot of outside shots. For the first three quarters we rebounded the ball great, not so much in the fourth quarter, but we had a big lead and were able to hold own.”
Behind Dunbar on the NA scoring index was junior Quh’mareon Webb with 14 points and senior Jamison McKenzie and Jordan Rouse each contributed 8 points. Junior guard Toian Nabriat had seven points followed by senior Cameron Humphrey with two points.
After the game Wilson head coach Yusuf English said, “Their defense made it difficult for us to get the ball inside on our ball rotation,” said Coach English. “We had a couple young guys out there playing so when they packed in their zone defense it made it a little tougher for us.
“They were giving us the outside shots and they were just not falling,” said Coach English. “If we make half of the shots, we missed it would have been a different outcome. We knew they would not be able to match up with us man-to-man so we worked against a 2-3 zone in practice all week.
“Our long shots led to long rebounds and I would to see the stat on how many transition points they scored as a result,” said Coach English. “I am very proud of the team and the great effort they displayed on the court today.”
Wilson was led in scoring by 6-6 sophomore Tristan Thompson with 11 points while 6-6 soph big man Josh Leonard had 10 points and led the team in rebounding. Junior Christian Bruce and 6-7 senior forward Elijah Smith had 9 points each.
