Myrtle Beach boys basketball team opens region play with victory

Myrtle Beach – The Myrtle Beach High School boys basketball team may be new to AAAAA,

but there will be nothing new to the Seahawks about their “new” region.

Region 6-AAAAA is a region made completely out of Horry County high schools. It came into

being when Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach moved up from AAAA following reclassification to

join Carolina Forest, Conway, Socastee and St. James.

While all those schools have routinely played each other over the years, this will be the first time

the games will count as region contests for everybody.

Region play began for MBHS on January 7 as it beat St. James 62-47 at home. Myrtle Beach

came out of the game with a 6-4 overall record.

Seahawks head coach Eric Lyons hopes his team will be in a basketball mindset with the start of

region play.

“We are pleased with the progress we made early,” Lyons said. “We had a late start with the

success of our football team, but we hope to be ready when region play begins.”

The Seahawks have three returning starters in senior point guard Matthew Campbell, senior

guard James Watson and senior small forward John Simmons.

Simmons was averaging a double-double with a scoring average of 12.5 point per game and 13.0

rebounds. He was also averaging 5.0 steals and 4.5 blocked shots. All of those were team highs.

Watson was averaging a team high 5.6 assists to go with 12.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.3 steals.

Campbell was averaging 11.0 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 5.0 deflections.

The other starters are junior power forward Jamarcus Carroll and junior shooting guard Ethan Lyons.

Carroll was averaging 8.8 points, 2.3 rebpimds amd 2.0 steals. Lyons was averaging 5.0 points.

MYRTLE BEACH GIRLS START 2-6

The Myrtle Beach girls basketball team split its first four regular-season ames before losing three

straight in a holiday tournament. Head coach Jennifer Dennison said her team is in a bit of a rebuilding

mode.

“This is a group of young ladies who we are rebuilding with,” Dennison said. “We have a tough

region. We will take one region game at a time and see how we do. Every region game is going to help us

get better. We need to build our strength and court awareness. The little things will make a big

difference.”

Myrtle Beach opened region play with a 38-34 loss to St. James.

Myrtle Beach has just one returning starter from last season’s 9-14 team, that being senior Elaya

Knox. The other starters are sophomore Gabby Giammalva, junior Scarlett McHugh, eighth-grader

Erin Williams and senior Aniyah Ritchie.