By Neill Kirkpatrick Special to the HSSR Kingstree – Tuesday night’s game at Kingstree High School was expected to be a close contest as you had two 20-win teams doing battle, but Bishop England jumped out to an early 9-3 lead and never looked back as they advanced to another lower state finals with a 56-28 win. “Bishop England has been in this position numerous times before and I feel like their experience was a big key. We turned the ball over and they took advantage of them. We never recovered from the first quarter,” said a dejected Kingstree head Coach James Price . The win improved Bishop England’s record to 26-2 as they get ready to take on Andrew Jackson , a 70-46 winner over Woodland while Kingstree finished the year at 20-4. “I thought our girls played really hard tonight. We were able to jump on them quick and put them in a hole so we knew they would have to shoot some threes and we did a good job of getting the rebound and pushing the ball up the court,” said BE head coach Paul Runey . In the first quarter Kingstree’s Demia Mosley hit a three to give the Lady Blazers their only lead of the game at 3-2 and then the Lady Battling Bishop’s took over both ends of the quarter as they would go a 14-0 run. Lissie Van De Erve scored five points including a three while Madison Riley scored four points inside to spark the run. The score was 18-6 Bishop England as the second quarter started and Kingstree’s Makalya Dukes drilled a three to cut the lead in half at 18-9 but that was as close as the Lady Blazers would get the rest of the night. Hadley Irvine came off the bench to score six-points in the quarter while Riley tallied four more points and the lead was 33-11 at the half. Bishop England controlled the boards on both ends of the court while also holding Kingstree leading scorer freshman Naydia Shaw to two points in the first half. Also, Hanna Rosato and Lizzy Tompkins put tremendous pressure on the ball not allowing the Kingstree guards any easy passing lanes. “We thought we could pressure the ball and force them out of their game. We also wanted to take 24 (Shaw) out of the game and make them hit some threes, “said BE’s coach Runey. The third quarter saw more of the same as Bishop England continued to build on their lead as the quarter ended with them up 47-19. Rosato had five points in the quarter for the Lady Battling Bishops. The teams traded baskets in the fourth quarter for the final of 56-28.  Bishop England had four ladies score in double figures led by Van De Erve with twelve points while Rosato scored eleven while Riley and Irvine chipped in with ten points each. The Lady Blazers were led by Dukes with eight points while Shaw tallied six points. Those totals were well below their season averages. “I told the seniors they have started a legacy as this is the second year in a row that they have made it into the third round of the playoffs. I am so proud of the effort they showed all year,” coach Price said.

This is the first year South Carolina High School League has sanctioned boys volleyball championships