By Billy G. Baker Publisher Florence — Powdersville defeated the Christ Church boys’ basketball team for the third time this season, 58-57, to advance to the AAA state finals against Keenan to be played on March, 7 in the Florence Civic Center at 8 p.m. and this game was highly competitive from start-to-finish. Powdersville head coach Austin Anderson shared his thoughts after the game, “I felt like we played good transition defense, and we made things happen on offense in the second half and it was just an awesome win for our program,” said the coach. “We played Christ Church twice in our region tis season. We won by two the first game and 10 the second game so we have competitive games with them all season. “This game required mental execution and solid defense and a game like this will get us ready to play a well-coached team like Keenan,” said Coach Anderson. “We need to play well against them for sure. “The biggest improvement in this team over last year is that we really pride in our defense,” said Coach Anderson. “We do not always take as much pride in our transition game but we do in our defense. Man, we are just a hungry basketball team and we came into the season with some big goals. “Our key against Keenan is to rebound and execute and keep our defense at a high level,” said Coach Anderson. “They like to control the basketball and they are patient on offense.” Christ Church head coach John Butler, is one year removed from the Class A state champion ship success, and his team came within a point of sending the game into over-time. “I think the difference in the game was they made more free throws then we did,” said Coach Butler. “When you lose a game by one-point you are drawn to that fact. They hit most of their free throws, and we didn’t, and this was the difference in the game. “We had only one senior starter tonight, guard Adam Brown ,” said Coach Butler. “We’ll work hard to keep improving with a goal of getting back to the championship next season.” (To Coach Butler’s point the Cav’s made only two-of-seven free throws while Powdersville converted 12-of-16 free throws.) The game went back-and-forth throughout the contest, and one shot the crowd at this game will never forget, was a 75-foot desperation heave by Christ Church player Jonathan Perry as time expired that swished the net, just one point shy of tying the game!  Powdersville took a 16-12 lead after the first period on the strength of three three- pointers made by bombers Jaleel McGee , Quan Burton , and Micah Williams . Williams was on fire with 8 first quarter points. David Dixon led Christ Church in the opening period with two three-pointers. The second quarter was up-and-down, and run-an-gun as both teams battled to a 32-32 tie at the break. In the second quarter Adam Brown got things started off for the Cavaliers with a three-point shot to make the deficit 19-15. Then the Patriots went on a 7-0 run to lead 23-17 with 6:06 left in the period. In the second period Powdersville was led by Burton’s five points, Landon Sullivan’s five points and McGee’s four points to pace the attack. Christ Church was led in the second quarter by Anthony Atkins with seven points, Perry with seven points, and Adam Brown contributed four second quarter points as the team scored 20 points to get back in the game. Powdersville won the third period 15-11 to take a 47-43 lead into the final period. Christ Church took a 34-32 lead on a put-back basket by Dixon on the first basket of the period. Powdersville scored the next two baskets in the paint, on baskets from Burton and Jaleel McGee, to regain the lead at 38-34. A deep corner three-point shot by Perry gave the Cav’s a 43-42 lead with 48 seconds left in the third period. Powdersville got a three-point shot from Quan Burton to go up 45-43 with 24 seconds left, and they extended it to a four- point lead, when Quan Burton made two free throws in the final seconds of the quarter. The final quarter was physical, intense and both teams left it all on the floor. The first basket of the period came on a lay-up from Cav’s big man Reid Hipp to cut the deficit to 47-45. Powdersville made the next two baskets to go up 53-45 on a three-point shot by Landon Sullivan and a lay-up by Von Burton with 6:03 left in the game. Christ Church did not go away scoring six points in a row to tie the game at 53 with 2:24 remaining. During the 6-0 run the Cav’s got baskets from Atkins, Brown, and Perry. Both teams made one free throw each over the next minute to remain tied at 54 with 1:30 left in the game. McGee hit a short jumper 52 seconds left to put the Patriots up 56-54 and then McGee made two critical free throws with 2.1 seconds left to give his team an important four -point lead at 58-54. Then Perry’s high arcing three- point desperation shot at the buzzer, swished the net cleanly from at least 80 feet, just a point shy of sending the game into over-time. The top scorers for Powdersville included Quan Burton with 15 points while McGee contributed 13 points and Williams had 11. Sullivan scored 8 points while Colton Kregar had two points. Christ Church was led by Johnathan Perry and Anthony Atkins with 17 and 16 points respectively. Dixon was also in double figures with 10 points . Brown had 8 points followed by Reid Hipp with five points and Duke football commitment Jude Hall had two points.

Christ Church Girls hoops building for the future By Neill Kirkpatrick Special to the HSSR Greenville – Christ Church Episcopal Lady Cavaliers Head Coach Jordan Filiatreau knew moving to Class AAA from Class A could be a struggle for his team especially with only two seniors returning from last season’s third round playoff team. “I knew we would be young and we would go through some growing pains. The jump to 3A has been tough and to get us ready we scheduled 4 and 5A competition in the non-conference. While our record may not show it but our team has not given. They continue to get better every day. Our goals for the rest of the season are to steal a game come playoffs and continue to build culture into the 2025-2026 Season,” said coach Filiatreau. Coach continued, “The biggest area that the team has improved is changing the brand of basketball we are trying to play from Iso ball to consistent ball movement. This has cut down on turnovers and gets more girls involved in the flow of the game.” Seniors Linda Rogers and Caroline Johnson have been sold defensively all year and have been the leaders of the team. Johnson, a three-sport star, leads the team in scoring at 9 points per game, leads the team in three’s with 20 and is second in steals with 2.8 per game. She has over 500 career points and has a shot at getting to 200 career rebounds and steals. Junior Sydney Shaw , Isla Boyd , and Emma Blair Jones have been solid all season and have provided valuable minutes in the paint all year. Coach is excited about his sophomore class as they have contributed all over the court and have Gotten better each day. Saddler Fox , Sopia Mahfood, Katy Cox, Cason McCall, Katie Greco, and Ryan Hunt make up the class. Cox is a three-point specialist and is tied for second on the team with 17. Fox also has 17 three’s on the year. She is second in scoring at 6.5 points per game and is second on the team in rebounding at 4.6 per game while Hunt leads the team in rebounding at 5.4 a game. Mahfood is the team leader in steals at 3.9 thefts a game. She is also an outstanding soccer player scoring 16 points as a freshman. Freshman Ava Lanzi has played in every game and has provided solid minutes off the bench.

Christ Church looking to make some noise in the AAA playoffs By Neill Kirkpatrick Special to the HSSR Greenville – The Christ Church Cavaliers are coming off back-to-back class A state championships the past two season but for them to win three in-a-row they will have to do it at the AAA level as they were moved up two classes because of new attendance rules. However, the move up has hardly affected the third ranked (by the HSSR) Cavaliers cagers as they are sitting 16-5/7-2 with one region game left before the playoffs begin. Their losses were to three higher class teams and twice to region 2 AAA champion Powdersville which should help them in the playoffs. “We always schedule tough games early in the season. It teaches our guys to play faster and stronger. And even when we lose and our record/rankings drop, the players understand that the competition will better prepare us for the region and the playoffs,” said head coach John Butler. Butler has three returning starters in junior guard Jonathan Perry, senior guard Adam Brown and junior forward Reid Hipp. Brown was named one of the top five seniors in AAA by the SCBCA. He is averaging 10.5 points per game and is one of two Cavaliers averaging 3.5 assists per game. Perry leads the team in scoring at 12 points a night and is also averaging over three dimes a game. Hipp is the team’s top rebounder pulling down 7.2 boards a game while scoring 9.7 points per game. Two juniors round out the starting lineup in guards Anthony Atkins and David Dixon. Atkins is the teams point guard and hands out 3.4 assists per game while averaging over nine points per game. Dixon is the team’s top three-point shooter with 31. He also averages double figures at 10.5 points per game. Off the bench for the Cavaliers are junior Jude Hall , sophomore Peter Bouharoun and freshmen Langdon Stout and Josh Butler. Hall, an All-State wide receiver, has been solid in the paint and on the boards as he is second on the team in rebounds. Junior Evan Keable, sophomore Colt Anderson and freshman Nehemiah Lomax round out the Cavalier’s roster. “This team has the potential to make a run in the playoffs. If we continue to play good defense and get a little better in half-court offense; this team will be a tough out in the playoffs,” said coach Butler.

By Billy G. Baker Publisher  Moncks Corner— For the majority of the 2024 football season BHP, and first year charter school Mountain View Prep were the top two teams in the weekly HSSR AAA football rankings and one of the them is heavily favored to compete in the gold medal round hosted at South Carolina State University on Saturday December, 14 at noon. In the HSSR final AAA ranking Mountain View Prep has moved to number one in the ranking with BHP a close number two led by Clemson running back commitment Marquis Henderson (5-11, 179). With their 48-7 win over Broome last week, they finished the regular season as the only undefeated team in AAA. The Stars simply have too many offensive weapons (roster boasts 72 players) to be denied an opportunity to win a AAA football championship in their first year of playing varsity football. They are led by Broome running back transfer Jaylin McGill who went into the game this past week with 1,237 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns on 108 carries. McGill is among the top running backs in the Southeast area in the Class of 2026. MVP senior quarterback Bryson Drummond went into the final regular season game having completed 99-of-142 passes for 1,807 yards and 22 touchdowns. His top targets have been junior WR Kadarius Hainsworth (37-903-15 TD’s) and senior WR Kaevon Washington (18-426-2 TD’s). McGill is right behind with (19-385-7 TD’s). Senior RB T.J. Gassoway provide depth at running back for MVP and he had 245 rushing yards on 28 carries and 3 TD’s going into the Broomer game. This first year charter school is simply loaded with a team of transfers with a roster loaded with potential next level players for head coach Grey Ramsey . This team’s mascot is “Stars” for a reason. On defense MVP is led by senior LB Eli Smith with 57 tackles, 6 TFL and two interceptions. Senior DL Quay McCauley has 38 tackles on the hit index with 11 TFL including a team leading seven sacks. Senior DL Shannon Whiteside has 36 tackles, 9 TFL and four sacks. Junior DB Jacobe Smith has 30 tackles, three TFL also. MVP will host Carolina High School this week at Newberry College in the first round of the AAA play-offs. With either top ranked MVP, or second ranked BHP favored to emerge as the AAA upper state champions the AAA lower state is not as predictable but the favorites at this point are region rivals Loris, ranked number three in AAA and Dillon ranked number four. When the two teams met earlier in the season at Loris, the Lions pulled out a 30-27 win and neutral observers at the game were quick to point out that Dillon was flagged around 18 times to only four penalties for the Lions. “It seemed every time we got a drive going, we had some odd penalties called that killed our scoring opportunities, and after we looked at the film on Saturday, we wondered why several of them were called at all,” said Dillon head coach Kelvin Roller . (No doubt a highly rated crew of officials will call the next game if these two teams meet in the play-offs and the HSSR predicts the penalties will not favor either team 18-5. (See in-depth story on Dillon on page 14 of this issue) No doubt, Loris has one of the better defenses in AAA. Their 14-13 lost to Socastee is the only blemish on their Lions season to date. Loris (9-1) have defeated teams 363-83. The Lions have three talented running backs and none of them are seniors. Sophomore Makel Stephens (5-8,175) finished the regular season with 642 yards and 13 TD’s while soph Roderick Purcha (5-10, 160) contributed 478 yards and seven TD’s. Junior Khalil Sherman (5-11, 175) has contributed 438 yards and seven TD’s. Loris has a junior QB Zamire “ Moon ” Gerald who has a strong arm. He finished the regular season completing 109 passes for 1,298 yards and 16 TD receptions. His top targets are senior Quantez Dyson (6-11, 165) who has 382 reception yards on 17 catches and five TD’s to date. Junior Jacobien Lewis is next with 14 catches for 287 yards and fie TD’s. Senior Zhimir Herring has caught 13 passes for 205 yards. On defense, Loris is led by three veteran seniors. Senior MLB Avery Todd (6-0,185) has 70 tackles along with two TFL. The most impressive head hunter for the Lions has been senior OLB Javon Johnson (5-10, 210) who also has 70 tackles, but his 19 TFL and a team leading seven sacks are very impressive. Senior ILB Patrick Bellamy is third on the hit index with 60 tackles and three TFL. Loris also gets additional defensive support from junior DE/LB Landon Connor ((6-0,225) who has 56 tackles and 8 TFL along with junior DE Damarea Thurmond who has 53 hits and seven TFL. Woodruff is also having an outstanding season from the up-state and lower state foe Oceanside Collegiate won the AA state title a year ago, and they could be a spoiler in the play-offs. (See story on Oceanside on page 45 of this issue).

Christ Church junior WR Jude Hall

Daniel's sophomore defensive back Christian Chancellor Jr.

By Neill Kirkpatrick Special to the HSSR Greenville – The Cavaliers of Christ Church athletics were having a good fall season until everything came to a halt with the arrival of Hurricane Helene to the upstate. The Cross-Country teams are having a good year. The boys team is led by senior Elliot Jeray , junior Ben Faulk , sophomore Eli Stone and eighth grader Max Delfino . Delfino finished 16 th at the state meet last year and has personal best of 17:40.52. The girls team is led by senior Eliza Roy and sophomore Margaret Mullen . In last years state meet Roy finished 5 th and Mullen was 17 th . Roy has a personal best of 19:42.20 while Mullen has a personal best of 21:12.80. In Volleyball the Lady Cavs have an uphill climb as they have two of the top AAA teams in the state in region 1AAA in Powdersville and St. Joseph Catholic . Powdersville won their most recent state championship in 2020 while St. Joseph won their most recent title in 2021. The Lady Cav’s are currently in third place with a good chance to make the AAA playoffs. The Lady Cav’s are led by senior Caroline Johnson and juniors Brooke Byxbee and Khloe Chappell . Johnson leads the team in kills with 42 while Byxbee leads the team in blocks and Chappell leads the team in assists with 69.

Hammond and Christ Church greeting before the coin toss for the home opener in Columbia, SC.

Class AAA football looks to be a wide open race in 2024!