Powdersville Defeats Darlington 53-47 To Win First Ever Basketball Title

By Billy G. Baker

Publisher

Florence — Powdersville came out of the gate 9-2 in the AAA boy’s finals against Darlington, at the Florence Center on March, 2, and eventually won the very competitive game 53-47, for the first state basketball championship at the school that opened in 2011.

After the hard-fought win, Powdersville head coach Austin Anderson told the HSSR, “This is our first state title in program history, and we talked about doing this for our community, and for our program, so we are very excited right now,” said Coach Anderson. “We are always hungry and never satisfied. We hope to win more in the future. For right now, we are going to enjoy this one.”

Coach Anderson made a heads-up time out call with 1:03 left to give his team the possession of the ball at a key moment in the game. “There was a fight for the loose ball, right in front of our bench, so I had to call a time-out and it worked out in our favor,” said Coach Anderson.

Coach Anderson said his team is losing only three seniors; Caden Kreger, Nick Sweet, and Jack Hurst. “Everybody else is back and we have Hayden (Assemian), and Jaleel (McGee) and a strong bench coming back so we should be just fine next season,” said Coach Anderson. “We had good play out of both our 6-7 guys (Kreger and Assemian) today and our high-low game was working very well.”

After the game, Assemian shared some thoughts with the HSSR, “We came out and played hard and executed the game plan very well,” said Assemian. “I am a commitment to South Carolina. I chose them over Wake Forest and a few other schools. I still have one more season of high school. I have been recruited as a power forward type for college. It feels great to have helped my team win a state championship.”

Darlington head coach Brad Knox took the loss hard, spending nearly 30 minutes with his team in the locker room after the game. “We had a couple possession calls near the end of the game that went against us, and changed the momentum of the game at a crucial time,” said Coach Knox. “My team fought back, after being down early, and I am very proud of these guys.

“Keenan Dubose has been stepping up all-year long and he is going to Presbyterian College on a football scholarship,” said Coach Knox. “When we played North Charleston the other night, he had 28 points and he had 27 in this game so he has been a big leader for us all season.

”The big difference in this game is that they pounded the glass and out-rebounded us,” said Coach Knox. “We got down early and we had to fight hard to get back into the game. I think these two factors were a difference in the game.” 

Powdersville led just 16-15 at the end of the opening period. Assemian scored six points in the first period and his dunk with 40 seconds left gave his team a 16-13 lead. Dubose countered for the Falcons in the first period with 8 of his game high 27 points.

In the second period the Patriots out-scored Darlington 12-9 to take a 28-24 lead into the half. Jaleel McGee led Powdersville at the half with 13 points. Dubose had 20 points and seven rebounds at the break for Darlington.

In the third period, both teams scored 14 points to give Powdersville a 42-38 advantage going into the final period. The Patriots scored the first basket of the final period on an inside move from Jaleel to take a six-point lead with 7:50 left in the game. A short jumper by McGee extended the lead to 46-39 with 6:43 left in the game before Darlington scored the next five points to cut the deficit to 46-44 with 3:50 left in the game. Dubose hit two free throws and a three-point shot from NBA range to close the gap.

With 1:30 left, Caden Kreger made a short jumper to extend the lead to four for Powdersville. The remaining 1:30 of the game turned into a fierce defensive battle and it appeared Darlington was about to gain a turnover on a loose ball right in front of the Patriots bench but Coach Anderson called a quick time out and his team kept possession of the ball.

With 42 seconds left, Assemian made a lay-up to give the Patriots a 50-44 lead. Then with 31.2 seconds left Dubose hit another NBA down town three-pointer to close the margin to 50-47. With 11.9 seconds left Assemian took a hard foul by two Falcon defenders, after a contested rebound. The officials had to get between several players from both sides. Assemian was awarded an intentional foul and he made one shot to give his team the 53-47 win.

Powdersville was led in scoring by McGee with 18 points followed by Assemian with 12. Van Burton and Jack Hurst each added seven points for the Patriots. Kreger added six points and Quan Burton rounded out the Patriots scoring with three points.

Behind Dubose’s 27 points for Darlington, Jayden Wingate had seven points, Michael Green added five points, and Deron Ross scored four points. Khalil Green and Tre’Viyon Johnson rounded out the Falcon’s scoring with two points each.

As a team Powdersville converted 14-of-25 free throws while Darlington made 15-of-21 from the charity stripe.