By Billy G. Baker Publisher Sumter —Having defeated Florence Christian 37-25 back in mid- December, the Orangeburg Prep (22-5) girls were favored to win the SCISA AAA girls’ basketball title when the same two teams met at the Sumter Civic Center on Feb., 28. with much more on the line.  Florence Christian led 19-14 at the half, while O-P rallied in the third period to cut the deficit to 28-26 starting the final period. However, the Eagles outscored the Indians 14-9 in the final period to win the state title 42-35. After the game, Florence Christian head coach Neil Minton was asked about his team’s improvement over the past two months. “It has all been the result of hard work, determination, and we just kept getting after it,” said Coach Minton. “I am so proud of my team, and I would like to go celebrate with them after you guys quit talking to me. “One of our key players today was Emerson Poston and she is the best and such a great kid, she’s a great person, and she is a great leader,” said Coach Minton. “She played very well on both sides of the ball today.” (Poston led the Eagles with 19 points in the title game after averaging 11.6 points during the season). What was the major difference in the team that could only muster 25 points in a loss to the Indians earlier, versus the team that put 42 points on the score sheet to win a state title? “We grew throughout the season,” said Coach Minton. “We had more bench players being able to play today and contributing positive minutes. “We had more people playing with confidence and they were stronger with the ball,” said Coach Minton. “All the little stuff we worked on helped us improve and we rely on our defense. I thought we played great half-court defense today.” Coch Minton gave a shout-out to his three senior starters who will be moving on. “ Leah Lambert is one of our unsung heroes and she is one of the better passing Post players around,” said Coach Minton. “She really knows the game, and she played really strong today. “Senior Anna Kate Huggins is one of our most important players defensively as Emerson is to us offensively,” said Coach Minton. “She sets the tone for us on defense. “ Demi Green is our third senior starter who is also a good leader and she plays well on both sides of the ball also,” said Coach Minton. Coach Minton said he talked about a key adjustment the team needed to make at the half when the Eagles had a 19-14 lead. “I felt like if we could make our lead a little bigger, it would eventually force them out of their triangle and two defense, and other zone defenses, and it would give us a little more room to work our offense. “However, it was important that Bailey Johnson , Charlotte Granger , and Demi Green also hit shots against that triangle and two defenses that we faced,” said Coach Minton. “We also did a better job of getting the ball in the middle of their press break.” Coach Minton, who is also the head football coach at Florence Christian now has four state titles in football and basketball over a 25-year coaching career. After a long post- game meeting with her hard-working team, veteran O-P head coach Jan Stoudenmire emerged with tears in her eyes. “We didn’t play very well today, and we have not been held to 35 points all year,” said Coach Stoudenmire. We just could not get the ball to go into the basket and that is what happened. “We made a few mental mistakes also, but you can’t take anything away from them,” said Coach Stoudenmire. “They have a great team, and a great coach, and they played hard and you could tell that they wanted to win a lot more than we did. “We got here and I am very proud of that and the hard work from our team all season,” said Coach Stoudenmire. “No one thought we would be back to the championship game this year, and our team is like a big family. They are going to come out of this bigger than life and they will be alright. “Most of the players on this team came to me as 5 th graders in our feeder programs and we have watched them grow, develop, and even make mistakes,” said Coach Stoudenmire. “We watch them do great things on and off the court also. I feel blessed and so fortunate to be able to coach them and I am proud of every player on this team. “We’ll keep working hard and trust me we will be back next season,” said Coach Stoudenmire. “We are not going anywhere.” Coach Stoudenmire said the focus on half-time adjustments was centered around the team shooting better in the second half. “We missed some shots we usually make so we talked about getting good looks on offense and getting the ball to go in the basket,” said Coach Stoudenmire. “Their match-up zone defense played well against our offense too.” Coach Stoudenmire cited the defensive play of senior leader Preston Schurlknight who will be joining her older sister in the Lander College softball program next season. “Preston was all over the court tonight, busting her behind on defense, and she is such an amazing kid. She does so many things on the court that never shows up in a stats box. “I’ll be coaching the softball team this Spring, and I can’t wait to see her on the softball field,” said Coach Stoudenmire. “With her leadership and talent, we are hoping to make a deep run in softball also. “We have a great group of seniors to go along with Preston,” said Coach Stoudenmire. “ Hannah Lambrecht has been on the team for a long time, and she has been one of our key leadership players the past two seasons. She is very good with the ball in her hands and runs the point very well. Our other two seniors are Jayme Culler and Kate Holstein , and they have all helped lay a good foundation for the program going forward.” Junior guard Mary Legare Delaney led the Indians with 15 points in the state championship game. “Mary has picked up where her older sister left off in our program, and she played well last year as a sophomore,” said Coach Stoudenmire. “We are very excited about having her back next season.” Beyond Delaney’s 15 points, Schurlknight had seven points for OP against the Eagles while Lambrecht and Culler contributed four points each. Holstein finished with three points also. Behind Poston’s 19 points for the Eagles were Johnson (8), Granger (5), Lambert (4), Huggins (3), and Green (3). The SCISA AAA girl’s all- tournament team included Schurknight and Delaney from O-P along with Johnson, Huggins, and Poston from Florence Christian. The other member was Kylee Finley from St. Johns Christian.

Sumter - The SCISA state basketball championship games at the Sumter Civic Center some of the best games in recent memory. The final game with Greenwood Christian vs Spartanburg Christian went to triple OT to determine the champion. 

Orangeburg Prep senior Avery Ravenell is averaging 23 pts per game and on pace for another 400 point season.

HHP rallies from 3-1 deficit with 4-run 6th to win program's first ever baseball championship

Game 3 in SCISA AAA baseball championship series to be played Monday at Dorchester Academy beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The SCISA Baseball playoffs are in the final semi finals and here are the updated brackets. 

Indians has won 22 of first 25 games

Orangeburg Prep freshman Landon Kuck 3B and closing pitcher in this game.

By Billy G. Baker Publisher Manning —Two of the better teams in SCISA baseball, for the 2025 season, Laurence Manning (10-1) and Orangeburg Prep (11-2) faced each other in a non-region game on March, 27 th and the Swampcats took advantage of five errors to claim a 8-2 win. Both teams will be in action 24 hours later. LMA travels to play at Hilton Head Chrisitan while O-P will host Colleton Prep . After the game, veteran LMA head coach Tom Hatfield shared his thoughts with the HSSR, “We are starting to get some kids back who have been dealing with injuries, our pitching staff is solid and out hitting coach Rodney Mooneyham works every day with our hitters and he does a good job. “We just need to be more consistent and I thought we took too many fastballs tonight,” said Coach Hatfield. “Orangeburg Prep is a fine ball club and they came into the game tonight at 10-1. We like challenges in mid-week games. “We used three pitchers tonight, and had them all on pitch counts so we can use them, if needed against Hilton Head Christian tomorrow,” said Coach Hatfield. “I thought they all performed well tonight. “The potential of this team, with the depth we have in our pitching staff, I feel like we can make a serious run in the play-offs,” said Coach Hatfield. “One of our main pitchers ( Braydon Barnhill ) is not back yet but we expect to have him back soon and he was one of our main pitchers last year. I think we can make a run at it (state championship) if we can keep everybody healthy.” Orangeburg Prep head coach Tate Jameson also talked with the HSSR after the game. “We have a packed schedule this season (26 games) and I always like to play more then we practice,” said Coach Jameson. “We have a group of veteran guys whop just love to come to the ball park and play baseball and that is what we are about.” Coach Jameson was complimentary of pitcher Hunter Judy going all seven innings for the Indians giving up 8 hits with five strike-outs and no walks. “We could have brought someone in later in the game but I wanted to give Hunter the peace of mind that I was not giving up on him. I just wish we could have hit better behind him and scratched out a run or two every inning but it didn’t happen. “We talked about not letting errors get the best of you before the game,” said Coach Jameson. “Unfortunately, errors early in the game hurt our chances for a win tonight.” The Indians have seven senior starters, including one junior ( T Riley ) and one 9 th grader ( Landon Kuck ) along with Charlie McCutchen who pitches and catches for us. Bryon Williams is a pitcher, catcher, middle infielder, Judy is a pitcher, catcher, middle infielder, and Riley is in center with Tadd Jameson in left, and Mo Burroughs is at first, and Eli Pantaleon is at short and pitches also. Kuck is our third baseman. “Tonight was a half-way night because we have now played 13 games with 13 more to go in the regular season,” said Coach Jameson. “Hopefully, we can bounce back from this game. Coach Hatfield has an excellent squad and I am glad we were able to compete against them, even though we did not quite measure up to them. I hope we learn something from this game and move on.”  LMA was led at the plate against O-P by Brenston Rembert who had two hits, three RBI’s, including a triple. Starting pitcher Ray Weston had two hits and two RBI’s while working 3.2 innings on the mound. First baseman DJ Balls had one hit and one RBI, Center fielder ZY Dennis had one hit and one RBI and catcher Cade Mooneyham had one hit in the win . The other two LMA pitchers in this game were Seth Witherspoon and Grayson Thornton who had four K’s in two innings of work. Other LMA starters against O-P included shortstop Grainger Powell , second baseman Payton Brown , right fielder Rory Carter , and left fielder Pierson Gamble . O-P was led on offense by Mason Tyler who had two hits, one RBI and two stolen bases. Riley, a gold glove center fielder who has 9 major college football offers to date, contributed one hit, while Jameson had a hit and one RBI. McCutchen, who hopes to play baseball at The Citadel , had one hit, while Williams also had one hit.