Sumter – Clarendon Hall raced out to an 18-6 lead after one quarter in its first-round game against Dillon Christian School in the SCISA AA girls basketball state tournament and really never looked back.
The Lady Saints led 27-13 at halftime before fending off a DCS run to start the second half on the way to a 47-27 victory at Sumter Civic Center on Friday.
CH, which improved to 16-7 on the season, will take on lower bracket No. 1 The King’s Academy on Monday at a site and time to be determined.
“Coming into today we wanted to make defense our focus,” said Clarendon Hall head coach Johnny Horton. “We wanted to play as hard as we can on defense. We've got girls who can score. It seems like sometimes we slack off on defense.
“I'm pleased. I think we did that coming out very early.”
Senior Zoree Pritcher led the charge for the Lady Saints with eight first-quarter points. Senior Sidney Berry and junior Mandy Wells both had four points.
CH maintained control with the 14-point halftime lead. The Lady Warriors got baskets from freshman Lily King junior Chloe Powell and sophomore Lilli Shooter to begin the second half, cutting the lead to 27-19.
Dillon Christian held Clarendon Hall scoreless for the first 5:17 of the third quarter, but it couldn’t get any closer. The Lady Saints reeled off 11 points before the end of the quarter on a Wells jump shot, a free throw and layup from Berry, a Wells free throw, a 3-point basket from Colleen McIntosh and two free throws from Pritcher. That made it 38-19 entering the fourth quarter.
“I just felt like our shots weren't falling,” said Lady Warriors head coach Kelly McColl, whose team finished with a 6-13 record. “We're usually better than that. We were missing one of our better shooters in Kylie Locklear.”
Berry led CH with 17 points, while Pritcher and Wells both had 10. Eighth-grader Olivia McLamb led DCS with six points, while freshman Braylin Carter had five.
“We're a young team. They’re still learning each other,” said McColl , who has no seniors, two juniors, two sophomores, four freshmen and three eighth-graders on the rost3er. “A lot of them have never played the game of basketball. We've got to learn how to swing it, to get it down low.
“We're proud of them. We had a rough go last year, but we won more games this year.”
Horton is looking forward to his team getting a rematch with The King’s Academy. TKA came away with a 46-42 home victory on January 11.
“I honestly felt like we could have a better record than we have,” Horton said :We’ve had some mental lapses, a couple of games where we didn’t shoot well. We’re hoping now that we’re in the postseason things will come together,
The King’s Academy is a rematch, and that’s a game where we missed like 20 free throws.”
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