Sumter – The Hilton Head Christian Academy girls basketball team will be going after its sixth straight SCISA state title on Saturday. Standing in the way is John Paul II Catholic School, which will be playing in its first ever championship game.
HHCA rolled to an easy 64-39 victory over Palmetto Christian Academy in a AAA semifinal game on Thursday at Sumter Civic Center, while the Warriors upset previously unbeaten Orangeburg Preparatory School 46-41.
The two schools, located about five miles apart, are expected to play somewhere in the Lowcountry on Saturday. A site and time have yet to be determined.
The Warriors, who improved to 18-7 on the season, never trailed OP, which won its first 26 games of the season.
“We knew that we had a fight on our hands because Orangeburg Prep has a great coach,” said JPII head coach Karen Floyd of Jan Stoudenmire. “We also knew we could do it.”
John Paul II scored the game’s first seven points and led 11-5 after one quarter. The Warriors took a 20-13 lead into halftime. They opened a 28-16 lead in the third quarter on a 3-point basket by Casey Graves with 6:07 remaining.
The Indians were able to get the deficit down to 35-27 entering the final stanza. They pulled within 38-33 on a trey by Annabelle Hunter with 6:07 to go. Points again became hard to come by over the next few minutes for both teams. However, Orangeburg Prep made it 41-39 with 1:53 remaining on a Katherine Lambrecht free throw.
The Indians had a couple of opportunities to either tie the game or take the lead, but couldn’t do so. The Warriors got a layup from Savannah Trott with 47 seconds left and put the game away with two free throws from Graves with 24 seconds to go.
Stoudenmire said John Paul II played an extremely good defensive game.
“That team was putting a lot of pressure on us, is very physical,” said Stoudenmire. “They're very well coached. We couldn't get to rim, we missed some easy shots too. We had good shots, we just didn’t shoot it well.”
Not only did OP struggle from the field, but it do so at the free throw line as well. The Indians connected on just 10 of 26 free throws.
“Our free throw shooting has been pretty darn good,” Stoudenmire said. “We normally shoot around 75 percent.”
Stoudenmire kept things in perspective with the season OP had.
“We had a great season,” she said. “To finish 26-1, who can argue with that? The thing about coming to Sumter is you’re going to either end up undefeated or with one loss.”
Graves and Lily Termini led JPII in scoring with 13 points apiece. Brady Mahoney added nine points while scoring her 1,000th career point during the contest. Trott finished with seven points.
Floyd has been the JPII head coach for nine years. Not only will this be the Warriors first title game, but Thursday was the first time they had advanced to the semifinals.
“They fought hard, practiced hard give everything they got to get to this point,” Floyd said. “Our goal was to defend well and not let No. 4 (Lambrecht) continuouly have the ball. Then we wanted to play great help defense.”
Hunter led Orangeburg Prep with 12 points. Jane Walker Yonce and Izzy Exum had eight points apiece and Lambrecht had five.
Hilton Head Christian 64
Palmetto Christian 39
Hilton Head Christian led just 12-6 after the first quarter before opening the advantage to 30-13 at halftime. HHCA broke the game open in the third quarter, outscoring Palmetto Christian 20-10 to take a 50-23 lead.
“We went out with a defensive mindset today,” said HHCA head coach Bobby Thompson. “Our defense played really good. They were communicating. Our top guards are really good, and they put a lot of pressure on people. We got turnovers and turned it into offense.”
Those guards are Mya Hutchinson and Devon Yarde. Hutchinson led Hilton Head Christian with 24 points. Yarde added 19, Macey Langhals had seven and Morgan Scott had five.
Thompson, whose team improved to 16-7, said nothing has been taken for granted despite the program’s dominance.
“It's great. It speaks to these girls being resilient,” Thompson said of getting back to the championship game. “They've worked hard all year long. Just because we were here last year doesn't mean we were going to be here this year. They had to forge their own path and that's what they've done.”
Cokey Suddeth led PCA with 23 ponts. Aubrey Bright had eight.
“Every team knows what we have. We have one girls that averages 25 (Suddeth) and four other girls who average less than 10,” said PCA head coach Raygon Hendrix-Jordan, whose team finished with a 16-17 record. “They knew it and they put their best player, who I think is an incredible defender, on her and she didn't score in first quarter. I thought we had a good game plan, but a team like ours we can't turn the ball over and expect to win.
“It's amazing, and I just told these girls I guarantee you there are no other teams in this state that have seven players who have made it this far. I don't have any seniors. I have everybody back, which is awesome. Hopefully we'll have more than seven next year so we can play 5 on 5. If I have seven though, I'll roll with these seven.”
HHCA and John Paul II are Region I foes. The Eagles won both of the regular-season meetings by the scores of 69-50 and 49-35, respectively.
“We're going to go and figure out how to contain their guards, because their team is their guards,” Floyd said.
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