Westside Rallies From 11-Point Half-Time Deficit For 59-58 Win Over South Pointe In AAAA Upper State Girl’s Finals
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Florence—The much-anticipated SCHSL AAAA Upper State girl’s championship contest between previously undefeated South Pointe (29-1) and highly regarded Westside (24-2) lived up to it’s pre-game billing, and when the dust settled in this knock-down drag-out, the Lady Rams pulled off an upset, 59-58, after trailing 37-26 at the half.
Westside will now challenge North Augusta at 2 p.m. on March 7 in the Florence Civic Center. North Augusta defeated Lower Richland on Monday to advance to the gold medal round.
After this huge win, former Westside player, and Rams head coach Nicole Hood commented, “I commend South Pointe on a great season and all I can say is that my team found a way to get it done tonight,” said Hood a former player for Hall of Fame coach Jackie Roberts. “I told the team just to believe and that it was a long basketball game and that we had to play until it is 0-0. The girls didn’t wait and I just comment my team.
“We just wanted to attack the basket,” said Coach Hood. “We wanted to get something going towards the basket and ply for high percentage shots. It has been a long season and I am so proud of them. To see out championship goals come to fruition is an awesome feeling right now.”
Westside was led in the game 8th grade 5-10 forward Tiana Marshall and sophomore 6-5 center prospect Khalia Hartwell with 13 points each. Hartwell also dominated the rebounding stats. Junior 5-11 forward Mariah Randolph contributed 9 points while junior guard Asia Clinkscales had six points. Junior Lamiyah Boggs had two points also.
The South Pointe team spent over 30 minutes in the locker room after the game. Veteran head coach Stephanie Butler-Graham said afterwards, “I am really proud of our young ladies and some folks had some doubts about this team coming into the season but their hard work paid off for us,” said the coach. “They have given us everything we have asked of them and they all matured and got better as the season went on.
“We just did not have much offense in the second half I felt like a couple of those five second calls were pretty quick they called against us,” said Coach Butler-Graham. “They tightened up their defense against us in the second half and we didn’t play with the same energy level in the second half.
My team showed up today and they were not afraid,” said Coach Butler-Graham. “These were two very good teams that played against other today. I am very proud of the effort my team gave.”
South Pointe was led by talented sophomore 6-0 forward JaNyia Cunningham who had 18 points followed by 9th grader Kaleigh Lucas with 13 points and senior leader Serentiy Woods had 9 points. Talented 8th grad guard Kemoni Hardy contributed 8 points for the Stallions and senior Laila Lewis and 9th grader Ailema Land each had four points.
South Pointe led 21-13 after the first period as Lucas and Lewis hit three-point shots early in the game to give the Stallions an 8-2 early game. By the half South Pointe had extended the lead to 37-26 and at this point they surely looked like the better team.
However, in the third period Westside turned up their defense, attacked the basket more, and they cut the deficit to 50-45 entering the fourth period. Westside tied the game at 56 with 2:50 left on a lay-up by Paul. Following a steal, Hardy put South Pointe back-up 58-57 with 57 seconds in the game.
After South Pointe missed two free throws with 50.9 seconds left Westside scored on an inbounds pass to Paul and she scored with 16 seconds left to give the Rams the win, 59-58.
