Walhalla tops Keenan 70-58 to defend AAA girls basketball state championship
Razorbacks use 11`-0 run in second quarter to take control of the game
Columbia – The Walhalla High School girls basketball team proved on Friday that last season’s AAA state title was not a fluke.
The Razorbacks took control of this year’s AAA champion contest early in the second quarter and never looked back as they defeated perennial power Keenan 70-58 at Colonial Life Arena.
“It means everything, honestly,” said WHS junior Ashlyn Frick, who led all scorers with 23 points, of repeating as state champion. “This is more than a basketball team. This team, we’re almost like a family. There’s just something about going back-to-back that makes it so special.”
Senior point guard Kami Roach echoed Frick’s thoughts.
“It’s so much more than a win,” said Roach, who has started on the varsity since eighth grade and was the 2025 South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association AAA Player of the Year. “It’s our last game playing with people who are literally my best friends. It’s more like a family. To do this again with my best friends is such a surreal feeling.”
Walhalla finished the season with a 26-2 overall record and on a 21-game winning streak. The Razorbacks haven’t lost to a AAA school since falling to Wren in the second round of the 2024 state playoffs.
This will be just the fourth state championship trophy going in the school’s trophy case. The first was for Class A boys track and field in 1946 and the second was for Class A boys basketball in 1952.
“It means a lot, the way the girls get to go out the way they did, the seniors,” said Walhalla head coach Byron Wimphrie, who just completed his fifth season in charge of the program. “I think the community is proud of that. To me, I think it’s gratitude because this is something that doesn’t happen a lot.”
The Razorbacks achieved the repeat against a program in Keenan that has won six state titles and played in four more title games since 2007. The Raiders’ most recent title came in 2023 when they claimed the AAA crown over Camden. It was the final of four consecutive championships and five in six years.
Keenan finished with a 20-7 record.
The game was a nip-and-tuck battle through the first six minutes or so. Two free throws by star sophomore Taylor Lee-Sutton brought Keenan within 14-12 with 1:48 remaining in the first quarter. Then it started to get away from KHS.
WHS sophomore Baylee Cannon answered the two free throws 15 seconds late, and senior Miley White hit a layup with 1:11 left to make it 18-12. Sophomore Anna Medlin drained a 3-point shot with 13 seconds to go to push the lead to nine before Lee-Sutton sank a 3-pointer just inside the halfcourt line at the buzzer to make it 21-15 entering the second quarter.
Any hope the long trey would swing the momentum in Keenan’s favor quickly evaporated. After the team’s traded a pair of baskets each, Walhalla reeled off 11 straight points in less than three minutes to take total control.
“We tried to claw back, but it took a lot of energy out of us,” said Keenan veteran head coach Reggie McClain. “They’re a good team. Once they got in their game plan, we had to get out of what we normally do.”
A layup by Medlin made it 27-19 with 5:42 remaining in the first half. A layup from Cannon and a 3 by Roach pushed the lead to 32-19 with 4:44 left. Two more layups from Cannon made it 36-19 with an even three minutes to go.
The Razorbacks led 42-27 at halftime. They expanded the lead to as much as 23 points – 61-38 on two free throws by Roach with 1:46 remaining in the third quarter.
Keenan took 29 more shots than WHS (79-50) but made just one more field goal (25-24). The Razorbacks used strong passing in their motion offense to hand out assists on 18 of their 24 field goals.
“I think that’s definitely what separates us from other teams,” Frick said. “It’s our ability to pass the ball. Each and every one of us on the court, whether it’s off the bench or a starter, everybody can score, and that’s what separates us from other teams.”
The ability to move the ball through the pass allowed WHS to handle the defensive pressure Keenan likes to bring. The Razorbacks were so successful against it, KHS had to back out of it.
“We’ve all grown up around the sport, and last year we had people who really stepped up.” Roach said. “I feel like it’s kind of crazy because we have so many people who play in different ways. We play so different, and I feel when all those different ways of play come together, it runs so smoothly.
“It’s amazing and I feel like our team, no matter what press they put on us, each one of us has so much confidence we don’t care who we pass it to. We can all handle the ball and the pressure.”
The Raiders trailed 62-44 entering the fourth quarter. They got some defensive stops and a 3-point basket by senior Xalesha Dwyer pulled them within 68-56 with 4:51 still remaining in the game.
KHS kept Walhalla off the scoreboard for basically another 2 ½ minutes. The only problem was Keenan didn’t score agains until just 1:05 was left on the clock.
“We missed a lot of layups and shots around the basket right there,” McClain said. “If we’d have hit a few more of those we could have made it more of a game.”
Frick was 8 of 15 from the floor, including 3 of 7 from behind the 3-point line, and hit all four of her free throws for her 23 points. She also grabbed nine rebounds and blocked three shots.
Cannon had 19 points, going 8-for-13 from the floor, to go along with three assists and six rebounds. Roach had 12 points, seven assists, six rebounds and two steals. White just missed a double-double, snagging 12 rebounds while scoring eight points.
Medlin finished with six points and eighth-grader Peyton Williams had two.
Lee-Sutton led the Raiders with 20 points to go with four assists, six rebounds and two steals. Senior Kristin Brown had 14 points and five steals, while senior Aareonna Caughman had 13 points, eight rebounds and two assists.
Junior Khloe Williams and junior Tylee Robinson both had four points. Robinson led KHS in rebounding with nine. Dwyer finished with three.
When Wimphrie took over the program, he admits he thought a bright future might lay ahead.
“I felt they could be special,” he said. “After my first year we just continued to get better and better. This is the result of the process and running the program. When you believe in what you’re doing, this is what happens.”
