Kingstree – The Williamsburg Academy boys basketball team came out of the gate winning its first nine contests. The Stallions were also off to a good start in SCISA Region 2-AAA with a 3-2 record.
Williamsburg head coach Kevin Burrows is not surprised by the success his team has enjoyed so far.
“They are performing the way I expected they would because they’ve been together for years from JV (junior varsity),” Burrows said.
Williamsburg’s 9-man roster includes six seniors with four of them being starters.
The starting lineup is made up Corey Burts, Wes Smith, Conrad Balder and Teague Ward, all of them seniors, and sophomore Micah Balder.
Burts is the leading scorer and rebounder for the Stallions. The 6-foot-2-inch Burts was averaging 18 points and 12 rebounds a contest.
Smith was the second leading scorer with a 14.0 average. Ward and Conrad Balder were just missing out on averaging double-doubles themselves. Ward was pulling down 10 rebounds a game while averaging nine points. Conrad Balder was averaging 11 points and eight assists.
Micah Balder, Conrad’s younger brother, was averaging seven points and four assists.
Senior Caleb Wright and junior DJ Bey are two key playing coming off of the bench. Bey was averaging eight points a contest, while Wright was scoring at a 7.0 clip.
Rounding out the roster are Camden Moore and BJ Davis, both seniors.
The Stallions were scorching their opponents in the non-region schedule, but things became more difficult once they hit the region schedule. Still, they won the first three games, beating Florence Christian School 52-47 at home, going on the road to beat Pee Dee Academy 51-48 and topping Carolina Academy 74-49 at home.
Williamsburg suffered its first loss of the season on January 19, losing at home to Christian Academy of Myrtle Beach 63-28. The Stallions rebounded with a 70-68 home non-region win over Oakbrook Prep before losing to Florence Christian 80-70 on the road.
Williamsburg was scheduled to close out its region schedule with a home game on January 30 against Pee Dee and road games at Carolina Academy on February 1 and Christian Academy on February 6.
Williamsburg has put itself in a good position to earn a berth in the state tournament. Burrows said there is one area the Stallions need to improve upon and another in which only time can provide help.
“Going into the postseason we need to rebound better and get healthy,” Burrows said.
GIRLS BASKETBALL TEAM HAS SLOW START
Burrows is also the head coach of the girls basketball team. Just as he anticipated the boys might be much improved, he also thought there might be some struggles for the Lady Stallions.
Then injuries didn’t help matters for Williamsburg, which won only one of its first 11 games and was 0-5 in region play.
“Kate Wilson and Makayla Rogers started the season injured and that hurt us a lot,” Burrows said. “Also, being young at the perimeter positions didn’t help us either.”
Wilson is back and in the starting lineup along with Audrey Wadford, Tristan Burrows, Rebecca Holliday and Anna Brown. Points have been hard to come by for the Stallions with Wadford leading the way with an 8.0 average. Wilson was averaging 3.0, while Burrows, Holliday and Brown are averaging 2.0 apiece.
Rogers is back as well and is seeing playing time as Coach Burrows said he uses his entire roster over the course of a game. The remainder of the roster is made up of Amelia Floyd, Essence Frazier, Logan Graham, Carmela Jacobs and Sophie Kellahan.
WLLIAMSBURG MOVING TO CLASS A IN FOOTBALL
It is safe to say Williamsburg has been one of the top two football programs in AA for the past three seasons. After all, the Stallions have played in three consecutive AA state championship games, winning the state crown with an undefeated record in 2022. Their only losses in the other two seasons came in the title game.
Williamsburg will not be going for a fourth straight berth in the AA championship game this season. That’s because it will be playing at the Class A level if the realignment proposal presented by SCISA holds true.
Stallions athletic director and football head coach Tyler Boyd was not surprised by the switch.
“We were the smallest school in AA and had two big graduating classes the last two years,” Boyd said.
` Bethesda Academy, which beat Williamsburg for the AA state title this past season, is also being reclassified to Class A.
The other 12 teams would be Andrew Jackson Academy, Beaufort Academy, Carolna Academy, Cathedral Academy, Charleston Collegiate, Colleton Prep, Dorchester Academy, Faith Christian, Lee Academy, defending Class A state champion Patrick Henry, The King’s Academy and Thomas Heyward.
Interestingly, Williamsburg will continue to play at the AAA level for all of the other sports.
Boyd said the reason for that is while football is based on the number of male students in grades 8 through 11, the classification for the other sports is based on the number of male and female students in grades 8-11.
There will be 15 other schools participating in AAA. They are Calhoun Academy, Christian Academy, Clarendon Hall, Colleton Prep, Dillon Christian School, Shannon Forest, Florence Christian, Greenwood Christian, Orangeburg Preparatory School, Patrick Henry, Pee Dee, St. John’s Christian, Spartanburg Christian Academy, Spartanburg Day School and Thomas Sumter Academy.
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