Wilson girls stifle Crestwood in second half on way to 66-23 victory

            Sumter – When the girls basketball teams from Crestwood and Wilson high schools met in Florence on January 7, it was a close affair with WHS coming away with a 47-43 triumph.

         That wasn’t the case when they played at CHS’ The Castle on Friday.

         The Tigers led by 10 points at halftime and then gave up just five second-half points on the way to a 66-23 victory.

         Wilson head coach Frank Williams said his team responded to what he told them at halftime.

         “We played more team ball tonight, and at the half I let them know we’re in region play, we’re gettiThe ng toward the end so this is a game that we need on the road,” said Williams, whose team improved to 16-5 on the season and 6-1 in Region 5-AAAA. "We have two more road games (among five more region contests) and then we finish off at home. This was a big win for us.

         “Like I always tell them, you can’t take any team for granted in this new region On any given night a team can put together a run.”

         WHS, which led 28-18 at halftime, made sure the Knights did nothing of the sort. The Tigers, who are ranked seventh in the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association AAAA poll, had their defensive pressure locked in and outscored Crestwood 20-3in the third stanza to open a 48-21 advantage.

         CHS head coach Shaquanda Miller-McCray said her team was overwhelmed by the defensive pressure.

         “We weren’t making ourselves available to the ball or the trap, which caused turnovers and frustration,” said Miller-McCray the former Knights standout who is in her first year as head coach.

         Williams said because Wilson doesn’t have a lot of height, it tries to take advantage of its speed.

         “I always preach defense to them,” he said. “We do a lot of running in practice. I think the thing that has helped us most this year is my kids ran cross country. That helped a whole lot as far as us getting up and down the court and trapping a lot.

“We’re not very big so we try to use our strength, trapping and playing good defense.”

Leading scorer Logan Murray led the way for WHS with 26 points, nine coming in the first quarter and nine more in the third quarter. Zoey Miller, the second leading scorer, didn’t score in the first half but finished with 13. Leannisa Swinton also had 13 points.

Crestwood’s leading scorers, Saniyah Williams and London Vaughn, both finished with seven points, scoring five apiece in the first half. Williams was averaging 18.4 points per game entering the contest, Vaughn 12.0.

Miller-McCray, whose team fell to 6-12 overall and 2-5 in region play, said she told the Knights they had to watch out for each other down the stretch.

“I said they’ve just got to be good teammates,” he said. “We have to help our teammates, especially under pressure.”

Wilson’s next game is at home against fourth-ranked Lower Richland, which handed WHS its only region loss with a 64-58 triumph. A win by the Tigers keep them squarely in the hunt for a region title.

Coach Williams said the Tigers need to continue to stay together as a team.

“When we play good team ball, we’re very hard to stop,” he said. “My team has been together since seventh grade. They know my expectations. They ain’t nothing new to anyone on my team or on my staff.”

Crestwood has three straight road games, starting at Hartsville on Tuesday.