Wardlaw Academy rallies from big first-half deficit to win SCISA Class A girls basketball title

Sumter – To say the least, things did not look good for Wardlaw Academy early in the second quarter of the SCISA Class A girls basketball state championship game on Friday at Sumter County Civic Center.

           Senior Abby Lewis had just connected for her second 3-point basket of the contest to give Richard Winn Academy a 22-6 lead with 5:23 remaining in the first half. The Eagles had four treys and had already forced 12 turnovers, and there was no indication that it would be slowing down.

           Then came the timeout.

           After the Patriots’ Taylor Hill hit a free throw with 4:12 left to make it 22-7, WA head coach Christina Groves Spurlock called a timeout. And that changed everything.

           “They were flustered and I called a timeout to calm them, to compose them,” Spurlock said. “We talked about the game of basketball is a game of runs. Richard Winn had had its run, and we were going to end it and take it from that point, and that’s what my girls did.”

           The Patriots had the lead down to seven by halftime and maintained the momentum the rest of the way to come away with a 43-39 triumph to give WA its first state championship since 2009.

           “I have girls that will go through walls for me,” Spurlock said when talking about her team’s rally. “That was evident if you watched the game.”

           “I saw my girls in a kind of panic, and I knew I had to get them under control. I knew I had to have peace and tell them it was OK. I knew if I acted spazzy, they were going to act spazzy and out of control.”

           “Honestly, she told us we knew the team that we were, and we just had to work together as one, ”Hill said. “It came together and worked our for us.”

Wardlaw and RWA came into the game with identical 13-7 records. With the title game, it was the fifth meeting of the season between the Region 3 foes, meaning a quarter of their games came against each other. The Patriots won the first meeting in triple overtime before Richard Winn won the second region contest in overtime, a special game to determine the region regular-season title and the region tournament championship contest.

           It’s said that familiarity breeds contempt, and while there were no cheap shots or trash talking, it was a chippy contest from beginning to end. Tempers flared once and WA was called for a technical foul.

           “There were no secrets out there,” said Spurlock, whose team lost to Curtis Baptist in the title game last season. “Everyone knows everyone.”

           However, when the teams returned to the floor following the timeout midway through the second quarter, Wardlaw came out applying full court pressure. That seemed to catch the Eagles off guard.

           The pressure immediately provided dividends as Hill hit a layup following a turnover on the first possession out of the timeout. More importantly, it seemed to change the mindsets for both teams.

           “They got us a little off kilter,” said RWA head coach Coleman Blackwelder. “We knew they were going to press, and we should have been able to handle it, but we didn’t. I think our youth showed a little bit there because we’re really young (with Lewis the only senior).

           “We lost our composure a little bit on offense. We quit moving the ball, reversing the ball, stuff like that. That hurt our confidence.”

With just eight players on the roster, Spurlock knew she was taking a calculated risk with the pressure. She felt the reward outweighed the risk at that point though.

           “They (the Eagles) looked frantic with it, and I had seen another team press them, so I wanted to try it,” she said. “The problem with us pressing is we’ve only got eight girls. I saw what it was doing to them. It was upsetting them so I kept with it.”

           “I think it swung the momentum of the game,” said Patriots senior Katherine Trotter. “We’ve got just eight girls, so to come out in the press like that shows that we’re in shape and we’re here to play.”

           Hill got another layup to cut the lead to 22-11 before eighth-grader Charlotte Lewis scored for RWA to push the lead back to 13 with 1:34 left in the second quarter.

           Richard Winn wouldn’t have another field goal for nine minutes and would score only three points during that stretch. That despite Wardlaw not pressing anymore in the second half due to four concerns.

WA cut the deficit to 24-17 at halftime and scored the first five points of the second half to make it 24-22. After two Eagles free throws, Wardlaw tied the game at 26-26.

           An Abby Lewis free throw gave RWA its final lead at 27-26 with 1:26 to go in the third quarter. A Trotter layup and two more Hill free throws gave the Patriots a 30-27 lead entering the final stanza.

           Hill hit two free throws with 7:15 remaining to give WA its biggest lead at 32-27. Consecutive jumpers from Abby Lewis snapped the field goal drought and pulled Richard Winn within one with 5:56 left.

           Wardlaw pushed the lead back to four at 35-31 only to see freshman Kaila McLean drain a 3 to make it 35-34 with 1:48 to go. Two free throws apiece from Trotter and Hill made it 39-34 with 1:25 remaining.

           A 3-pointer from eighth-grader Ada Bass sliced the lead to 39-37 with 54 seconds left. Trotter hit one of two free throws to make it 40-37 with 46 seconds to go. Two free throws from Charlotte Lewis pulled the Eagles within one again, this time at 40-39 with 38 seconds to go.

           RWA used pressure to come up with a steal from freshman Kate Baker around midcourt with 19 seconds left. As Baker tried to make her way toward the basket for a possible game-winning bucket, she was whistled for a double dribble.

           Blackwelder could offer nothing but praise for his team and the way it battled in the fourth quarter.

           “We showed a lot of grit at the end, knocking down a few buckets and getting back in the game,” Blackwelder said. “I’m really appreciative of the grit they showed.”

           Trotter hit two free throws with nine seconds to go to make it 42-39. After the Eagles turned the ball over, Hill hit a free throw with four seconds left to secure the title.

           “I’ve been chasing this dream ever since I started coaching,” said Spurlock, who is in her 12th season as head coach at her alma mater, where she was part of state title teams in 2006 and 2008. “Brick by brick we built that program back to where we are.”

           Trotter led Wardlaw in scoring with 17 while Hill had 15. Hill was 11 of 14 from the free throw line, while Trotter connected on seven of eight attempts.

Brianna McNeil, the Patriots’ other senior, added seven, while sophomore Lillie Stocum and eighth-grader Mary Blanche Stark each had two.

           Abby Lewis led RWA with 13 points. Bass finished with nine, while McLean and Charlotte Lewis had six apiece, Baker had three, and junior Haley Autry had two.

           Hill, Trotter and McNeill were named to the All-Tournament team from WA, while the Richard Winn selections were Bass and Abby Lewis. They were joined by Holly Hill Academy’s Milly Kate Prescott.

           As Spurlock did during her senior year at Wardlaw, Hill, Trotter and McNeill will leave as state champions. The fact they came up just short last season makes it even better.

           “Last year was a tough loss,” Hill said. “We came to the first day of practice this year, and we knew what we wanted our end game to be.”

“Last year I left here in tears, crying,” Trotter said. “This year I’m leaving with a trophy and a net, so I’m thankful.”