Bluffton -- The Hilton Head Christian Academy girls basketball team won its sixth straight SCISA state title on Saturday, beating John Paul II 68-44 for the AAA championship at the University of South Carolina Beaufort's Sand Shark Recreation Center.'
This was the second straight AAA crown for the Eagles. The first four came in the AA classification.
"I'm very happy for the girls because they've worked really, really hard," said HHCA head coach Bobby Thompson, who just finished his second season as head coach. "We had seven who didn't play variety last year. We knew we had a big learning curve, so we set up a difficult schedule. These girls worked hard in practice every day.
Winning six in a row takes a lot of effort and hard work," he added. "It's awesome to be a part of this."
The Eagles were led by the senior trio of Mya Hutchinson, Devon Yarde and Morgan Scott. Yarde has been a part of five of those state championships, Hutchinson three and Scott two.
Hutchinson led Hilton Head Christian in scoring with 31. Yarde had 20 points, eight of them in the first quarter, and Scott finished with 13.
HHCA led 18-12 after one quarter before gaining control of the game in the second quarter. It led 34-17 at halftime.
"We knew they were going to come out with a high level. of energy," Thompson said of John Paul II. "We pride ourselves on defense and conditioning. You've got to be in good shape to keep up with our guards; Our pressure started getting to them a little in the second quarter. Once that happens our offense flows better from that defense,"
"We felt good in that we were hanging in there after the first quarter," said JPII head coach Karen Floyd, whose squad lost to the Eagles by 19 and 14 points during the regular season. "In the second quarter it got away from us a little bit. It just wasn't what like we wanted it to be.
"In the second quarter turnovers got best of us," Floyd added. "There were probably some nerves."
Although the Warriors never got the deficit into single digits, it did hold its own in the third quarter, making small runs. The Eagles led 47-32 entering the fourth quarter and outscored John Paul II 21-12. Thirteen of their points came from Hutchinson.
"We definitely had a momentum swing, a good momentum shift," Floyd said. "In the fourth quarter, it was a case of us truly running out of gas. Those girls (Hilton Head Christian) are really, really good."
Brady Mahoney led JPII in scoring with 15 points. Lillian Termini had 12, Casey Graves six and Evelyn Melnick five.
HHCA finished with a 17-7 record, while John Paul II finished 18-8.
Hutchinson and Yarde made the all-tournament team for HHCA, while Mahoney and Termini made it from John Paul II. The other all-tournament selections were Annabelle Hunter of Orangeburg Prep and Cokey Suddeth of Palmetto Christian Academy.
Thompson was happy to have his seniors on the floor in the fourth quarter for their final high school games.
"They don't get to play many fourth quarters.," Thompson said. "I wanted them to be able to relish the last few moments of their whole high school careers."
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