Orangeburg Prep, Hilton Head Prep to play for SCISA AAA baseball title; Hilton Head Christian advances in AAAA

By WORTHY EVANS Contributing Writer  Columbia - Last season the White Knoll girls basketball team broke through with 17 wins and made the 5A Division 2 playoffs. Shortly afterward, head coach Coretta Ferguson left to coach the Irmo girls. Also departing the Timberwolves were seniors Shaelyn Hayes , who averaged 14.4 points per game, and Emory Waters - Inman , who averaged 11.9 points. Under first-year head coach Mark Luster , the 2025-2026 White Knoll girls have a lot of returners on the roster, but are considerably young. Even so, Luster is hopeful that the team (2-4) can come together in time for Region 4-5A play. The Timberwolves opened the season with a 63-22 loss Nov. 21 to a powerful Rock Hill team led by senior guard Chloe Hudson , but held their own in a 43-29 loss against another top team, Sumter , Nov. 22 “The Rock Hill game, we got handled, but we played Sumter pretty well,” Luster said. White Knoll scored its first victory of the season with a 65-26 win over Aiken Dec. 1, but a 79-34 loss to Blythewood came Dec. 2 and a 45-27 loss to Lower Richland came Dec. 5. The Timberwolves got victory No.2 with a 50-22 defeat of Aiken Dec. 10. “We’re a young team and we’re still making mistakes, but we’ve played some good competition that’s been a lesson for us,” Luster said. “The good thing about it is that we’re going to see how well we’ve improved when we play these teams the second time around.” Having played Aiken twice, the Timberwolves traveled to Lower Richland Dec. 12 and to Blythewood Dec. 13. White Knoll heads to Laurens Dec. 16 and plays Brookland - Cayce Dec. 19 before opening region play against River Bluff Jan. 9. While losing Hayes and Waters-Inman, White Knoll has a returning leader in senior point guard Sidney White . White has been benched with an ACL injury last year. “She’s one of our better players even though she hasn’t played a game yet,” Luster said. “She’s been practicing with the team and hopefully get cleared if she passes an exam tomorrow (Dec. 12).” Another of the team’s more experienced players is junior guard Jaliyah Daniel , who played on the varsity team her freshman and sophomore years. “She’s our leading scorer right now,” Luster said. “With the ball in her hand as a point guard, she’s stepped up to be a great leader.” With White and Daniel poised to lead the team this season, the rest of the team is competing for starting slots. “Not a lot of the girls have logged varsity time,” he said. “We had some girls play in some spots for a while, but I think we’ve got some girls who can start. Valentina Paniagua is a junior and she stepped up for us and we’re looking for some good things from her. She’s had some injuries but she had a good game last night (the second win over Aiken).” Freshman Center London Thompson is one of the better players in the class of 2029. “She’s come along really well and is a great rebounder,” Luster said. “She’s going to go quite a bit further with her skills development before she leaves us.” Junior guard Desiree Butler has been a part-time starter for the Timberwolves. Luster said she’s struggled a bit but added that he likes what he’s seen from her and will likely be a regular on the floor. “Other than that, we’ve got a lot of little pieces to fit,” Luster said. “We’ve got to figure out what they can do.” White Knoll looks to have as balanced a team as it can be on the court by the time region play opens in 2026. With Luster taking the job so late in the cycle, he said he wasn’t able to put the team through summer and fall camps. “November was the first time I got the team out on the court,” Luster said. “We go out on the court against teams who have had a whole summer and fall, and we’re still installing and learning stuff. We know we’re behind the 8-ballbut we’re playing hard.” Luster said the goal for the team is to be .500 going into region play. By then he thinks the team will be playing its best basketball, and would head into the second round of region play holding it’s own. “It doesn’t get any easier for us, but I like that we have a talented group of juniors and freshmen,” Luster said. “I think we can surprise teams. We have a bright future. We’re excited about the season.” The White Knoll boys are coming off a 13-14 season in which they reached the 5A Division 2 playoffs but lost to Myrtle Beach in the first round. The Timberwolves (5-3) got off to a 1-3 start but have won four straight, including wins over 5A Division 1 state runner-up Blythewood (68-66) Dec. 2 and Lower Richland (70-50) Dec. 5. White Knoll played at Lower Richland Friday and at Blythewood on Saturday, and plays Laurens, Brookland-Cayce, and North Augusta before heading into the Lexington Roundball Classic Dec. 26-28.