Midlands teams make strong presence in Florence

By WORTHY EVANS

HSSR Contributing Writer

Columbia - With both upper and lower state championships and the state finals playing out at the Florence Civic Center Feb. 23 – March 2, several Midlands teams made the journey to play in the final series of basketball games in the 2023-224 season.

The Lexington boys off Summerville for the 5A lower state championship Feb. 23 and bested Byrnes for the Wildcats’ first state championship in 24 years.

In 4A, Ridge View eased past James Island for the lower state crown, then held off Riverside in the state final Saturday to win its fifth state championship. The Ridge View girls fell to Region 5-4A rival A.C. Flora in the state title game, as the Falcons claimed their first lower state championship. A.C. Flora fell to Riverside in the state final.

In 3A, Lower Richland fell to Darlington in the lower state finals, while Camden beat Darlington for the lower state crown and dismissed Wren for the Bulldogs’ second straight state championship.

Class 2A’s boys lower state championship featured a battle between Region 4-2A rivals Gray Collegiate Academy and Keenan. The War Eagles topped Keenan, then held off sister academy Oceanside Collegiate for its sixth state championship in seven years. In girls action, the Gray Collegiate girls fell to Landrum in the upper state championship game and were unable to defend their 2023 state title.

Below are Midlands highlights from each classification, as well as a word about SCISA 4A state champions Cardinal Newman boys and Heathwood Hall girls.

SCHSL 5A

Lexington’s Jaxon Prunty, Cam Scott, and Kaleb Evans led the way to 67-48 victory over Byrnes Friday. Prunty led the team with 23 points. Scott, a Texas signee, had 21 points and 12 rebounds, and Evans had 12 points.

“These kids worked hard,” head coach Ellliott Pope told the Lexington Chronicle. “These kids bought into what we were trying to get done, and they executed it for a really high-intensity ball game. So I'm extremely proud right now.”

Scott, a five-year varsity player and one of eight seniors on the team, became the Wildcats’ all-time leading scorer this season, and was named the Class 5A Player of the Year.

“This was the goal since 2019,” Scott said about winning a state title. “This is the one goal that I had on my checklist, and I'm proud to say that I can check it off.”

Lexington led 11-10 after the first quarter and 29-22 at the half. The Wildcats opened up a double-digit lead after a 17-10 third quarter, with Scott scoring 12 points in that frame. Lexington led 46-32 going into the final period and closed out the game scoring 21 points.

“I can't even put words into it right now. It hasn't really sunk in yet that I just won a state championship," Prunty said, adding that it marks the last game with Scott as a teammate. “That was our last game with each other, but we've been playing for so long with each other. But that, that just means a lot. I love that dude.”

SCHSL 4A

Riverside did all it could to gain an advantage on Ridge View, but the Blazers proved more than capable of blunting each attack.

Sophomore guard Korie Corbett scored 18 points and senior forward Jayden Pretty added 15 points as Ridge View took out Riverside 58-52 to win their fifth 4A state championship.

“It’s surreal, man,” Pretty said. “I had a dream about this a month ago, now I’m here, and we won it. I owe it all to my team and my coaches, everybody who helped me get here, my teammates.”

Once they built a lead, Pretty and the Blazers (27-2) went all out to protect it. They overcame Riverside’s fierce man-to-man defense by exercising patience and waiting for the right shot. They took advantage of some sloppy Warriors ball-handling early on to build a big lead, watched as Riverside cut most of that lead away, and used tight ball control to prevent steals and easy baskets.

“We’ve got a team full of killers. That’s how they are,” said second-year head coach Josh Staley, who won a state title as head coach of Flora before coming to coach the Blazers. “They’re like that in practice every day. … We’ve played high-level games all year long. We never fold, we never crack. The bench was live and cheering for us the ups and the downs, so I wasn’t surprised.”

Patience helped the Blazers greatly, especially late in the game. On that note, Staley said it was vital to get to the state championship game after a 15-13 effort in his first year.

“The buy-in was big. The kids that were here last year bought in the whole time,” he said. “It just takes time to develop. Most people call it growing pains, and that’s exactly what it is. We had to grow, we had to learn each other, we had to learn to love each other, accept each other for who we were, and I knew we could get to this point.”

In the girls matchup, A.C. Flora took on Riverside and soon found out that it simply was not the Falcons’ day to shine. The Warriors cruised to a 62-32 victory to claim their first state championship. They built a 9-point lead by halftime and went on a 16-0 scoring run for most of the third quarter to put the game out of reach. Down 47-22 with 90 seconds left in the third quarter, A.C. Flora got a foul shot from Emory Curnell, and Jazmine McDonald-Crafts made a layup at the buzzer to account for the Falcons’ three third-quarter points.

Riverside spent the final eight minutes killing the clock.

“I told them from the beginning that they’re special, and I mean that,” A.C. Flora head coach Jacob Thompson said. “Tonight didn’t turn out like we wanted. Riverside’s a really good team. They did a lot of great things and frustrated us at times to where we missed some shots. But how much I love and respect that group of girls in there, I can’t put it into words.”

SCHSL 3A

In Camden’s 44-21 victory over Wren Saturday for the team’s second straight state championship, there was Joyce Edwards and there was everyone else.

The High School All-American, Class 3A Girls Player of the Year, and South Carolina signee scored 27 points and pulled down 20 rebounds. The Bulldogs (28-2) limited the five Hurricanes scorers to no more than six points on the afternoon.

It was Edwards’ last game as a Bulldog. “This is a bitter-sweet moment for me,” she said. “I am looking forward to going to South Carolina next year, and I am so glad I got to see the growth of Camden High basketball, and that I got to be a part of two state championships. The time went by fast for me in high school. I am now looking forward to the next step in my life.”

SCHSL 2A

Before moving up to the 4A classification for the 2024-2025 school year, Gray Collegiate battled through an ad hoc schedule to offset Region 4-2A forfeits, moved through the playoffs with ease, and beat its sister academy, Oceanside Collegiate of Charleston 44-40 for its sixth state championship in seven years Friday.

To do so, the War Eagles had to rally back from the Landsharks’ 16-3 lead. Gray went 1-for-11 in shooting during that stretch. Eventually, the War Eagles caught on to a 12-0 scoring run and trailed just 20-19 at the half.

“We came out and I think everybody was antsy,” Senior Braylhan Thomas said. “Our coaches were very good at halftime getting us to breathe, get everybody back on the same page and it showed on the court.”

Gray Collegiate played better basketball in the second half, winning the third and fourth quarters by a basket each to finish with the 4-point margin of victory.

“When we got down 16-3 I wasn’t worried, it was just we weren’t making shots and we weren’t moving the basketball,” Gray head coach Dion Bethea said. “I just wish we would have done a whole lot better making shots. But we made shots when it counted in the most important parts of the game.”



Thomas, who was on four of the War Eagles state championship teams, led all scorers with 16 points.

SCISA 4A

The Cardinal Newman boys beat two-time defending state champion Augusta Christian 71-61 at the Sumter County Civic Center Feb. 23. The Cardinals last won a state championship in 2020.

In doing so, Amarii King and Evan Carter made some clutch shots in the third quarter to get Cardinal Newman (21-15) on a good footing to beat the Lions.

“Amarii’s hit tough shots like that all season,” Cardinal Newman head coach Philip Deter told the Columbia Star. “And Evan—I mean he’s that type of guy when he wants to be, and he found a match he liked, and he just went after it, and we kept giving him the ball. So credit to our guards for getting it to him and credit to him for having the confidence to do it.”

King finished the day with 25 points, Carter put up 23 and Luis Echevarria added 12 to lead the Cardinals.

In the girls 4A final, Heathwood Hall (20-3) won its second straight state championship with a 58-56 victory over Northwood Academy.

Senior Lauren Jacobs scored 23 points and Sabreya Monsanto added 21 points to lead the Highlanders. Camillea Gore hit the game-winning shot in the game’s final seconds.

Heathwood Hall held a double-digit lead on the Chargers early in the game, but Northwood stormed back and eventually tied the game at 37 midway through the third quarter.

The Highlanders built another lead in the fourth quarter but Northwood tied the game again, at 56, with 23 seconds to play.

With the game on the line, Monsanto rushed the ball down the court and passed to Gore for a layup, but the shot missed its mark.

Gore did not miss the rebound, though, and put the ball up for a basket with 8 seconds left. 

“It’s just one of those things where we’ve learned how to deal with the ebbs and flows of the game,” Heathwood Hall head coach Brionna Zimmerman said. “I’m really proud of the girls for being able to play for 32 minutes and not let the times where the lows happen keep you from getting back to the highs. And I think they did a great job of kind of keeping their composure, not letting it rattle them and finish it out.”

Midlands Top 10

Top 10 boys - Ending March 2

1.  Lexington 28-2

2. Ridge View 27-2

3. Gray Collegiate 30-6

4. Westwood 22-3

5. A.C. Flora 20-6

6. Blythewood 21-7

7. Lower Richland 21-6

8. Cardinal Newman 21-15

9. Hammond 14-9

10. Dreher 14-10

Top 10 girls - Ending March 2

1. Camden 28-2

2. A.C. Flora 23-8

3. Dutch Fork 23-4

4. Heathwood Hall 20-3

5. Gray Collegiate 20-12

6. Ridge View 21-9

7. Lower Richland 20-7

8. Keenan 17-9

9. Westwood 17-10

10. Blythewood 13-9