The Region III-5A wrestling championships was held on Saturday at Fort Mill High School where Boiling Springs captured an individual region championship along with two runner-up finishes.
In their first championship matches in the new region, one known for strong wrestlers, Boiling Springs saw senior Drayton Wines walk away with the individual region championship at heavyweight where he defeated Clover's Isaiah Plummer in the finals. Boiling Springs also got impressive performances from two sophomores as Ayden Whisler and Tristan Ellison captured runner-up finishes at the region championship. Whisler finished second at 113 after falling to Fort Mill's Sebastian Colon in the finals and Ellison finished second at 170 after falling to Clover's Asa Watson in the finals match. "We took a very young squad to Fort Mill today and was just looking to get some mat time with the limited amount of matches we've been able to get this year," said Bulldogs head coach Lee Thomas. "We'll get back to work this week this week getting ready for our last dual of the year on Thursday and look to preparing our three qualifiers for Upper State in a few weeks." The Bulldogs wrestling team will compete in their final match on Thursday at home against Greenwood. Wines, Whisler, and Ellision will compete for the Upper State championships on February 19-20 at Nation Ford High School. After week outside of region the Boiling Springs boys basketball team returned to the region by picking up a 63-53 win over the visiting Blue Eagles by using a big first quarter run to put them ahead of Clover early.
"Tonight was a game of runs," said Bulldogs head coach Curtis Nash. "We got out to an early lead in the first quarter with some big shots by senior Corey Johnson and right before the half Clover made a run to cut into our lead. We told the guys that the game of basketball is about making runs and controlling runs by the other team. Tonight we did just that and battled to the end to get the win." Boiling Springs jumped out to a 23-8 lead at the end of the first quarter behind a big quarter from Khalil Brown, who scored seven points and was one of five Bulldogs to score in the quarter. Clover was able to keep it within ten by a strong first quarter from Lawrence Bartee who scored seven of the Blue Eagles points in the quarter. In the second quarter Clover attempted a run to narrow the Bulldogs lead but were held at bay by some strong shooting from senior Corey Johnson who hit three of his six three-pointers in the game during the quarter to help Boiling Springs maintain a 41-27 halftime lead. After halftime the Blue Eagles were able to cut into the Bulldogs lead as they outscored Boiling Springs 14-9 in the third quarter to make the lead 50-41 heading into the final quarter of play. Shamajay Poole and Vincent Alexander led the Clover attack in the third quarter as both players combined to score eight of the team's points in the quarter. In the fourth quarter both teams battled back and forth with the Bulldogs holding a slight 13-12 advantage behind some strong free throw shooting from Camden Earls who went six of six from the free throw line in the final quarter. Boiling Springs had three players finish in double figures on Tuesday night as Corey Johnson led all scorers with 20 points followed by Khalil Brown with 15 points and Camden Earls with 11 points. Clover was led on offense by Vincent Alexander who scored 12 points and Lawrence Bartee who scored 11 points for the Blue Eagles. In the girls game the #1 ranked 5A team Clover defeated the Lady Bulldogs 67-24 on Tuesday night. Both teams will meet again on Friday night at Clover in another region matchup. Boiling Springs went out of region play on Tuesday night and used a strong second half performance to come away with a 70-61 road victory against Hillcrest.
"Coming into the game tonight I told the team I wanted us to work on doing things that made us better," said Bulldogs head coach Curtis Nash. "In the first half we didn't do any of those things well so at halftime I challenged the guys to fix those things with high energy and let the outcome of the game determine itself." The Bulldogs fell behind early 15-9 but stayed close behind scores from seniors Cam Earls, who had five points, and Corey Johnson who went four of four from the free thrown line in the quarter. In the second quarter Hillcrest extended their lead to a nine point advantage as they outscored the Bulldogs 14-11 to hold a 29-20 halftime lead. Johnson, Earls, and Quanye Nails combined to score all eleven points in the quarter for the Bulldogs while Ryan Smith led the Rams in the first half with seven points. Boiling Springs responded to their coach in impressive fashion to start the second half as they outscored the Rams 24-16 behind an impressive 16 points in the quarter by Corey Johnson. Nash said that his team answered the call in the second half and not all the contributions were seen in the scorebook. "We cut into the the halftime lead at the end of the third and we continued playing with high energy into the fourth quarter as well," said Nash. "Senior Tre' Bailey deserves a special mention for his leadership tonight as he didn't have a lot of points but his energy communicating on the defensive and offensive end of the court was the senior leadership we needed tonight. It was definitely a team victory tonight." The fourth quarter saw the Bulldogs continue their run outscoring the Rams 26-16 as Cam Earls and Khalil Brown combined to score 20 points in the quarter while the team went nine of twelve from the free throw line down the stretch. Boiling Springs had three different players score in double figures as Corey Johnson led the way with 30 points while Cam Earls added 20 points and Khalil Brown finished with 11 points on Tuesday night. Hillcrest was led by Ryan Smith with 18 points while being joined in double figures scoring by Isaiah Buckmire with 12 points and EJ Smith with 11 points. Boiling Springs will be off the rest of this week and will look to build on their win next Tuesday when they return to region play in a home game against Clover. The Spartanburg county wrestling championships were held on Saturday at Byrnes High School and when the final match ended the Boiling Springs wrestling team walked away with a fifth place finish and Chesnee came away with a seventh place finish. Byrnes won the championship with an overall score of 254.
While neither team had an individual championship at any class on Saturday they did have some very strong showings at the event. Chesnee’s Aedan Mendoza finished runner-up at 122 lbs to Byrnes’ Chris Compton while his teammate Corey Seay finished runner-up at 197 lbs to Dorman’s Drew Henson. Boiling Springs also had two runner-up finishes Dre Guyton finishing runner-up at 140 lbs to Chapman’s Saber Woodard and Dayton Wines finishing runner-up to Byrnes’ Darrius Davis at 287 lbs. Ayden Whisler (115), Aiden Duncan (134), and Ethan Coppola (147) all came away with third place finishes for the Bulldogs as they each won their consolation finals matches. Chesnee’s Garrett Williams also won his consolation finals match at 154 lbs to pick up a third place finish for the Eagles. Chapman had a good showing at the tournament as well finishing third overall with Seth Toleman (115) and Saber Woodard (140) walking away as County champions along with Joshua Moss (162) coming away with a runner-up finish. Bradley Whiteside (108), Jacob High (128), and Rontyias Jones all walked away with third place finishes after coming away victorious in their consolation finals matches. Boiling Springs will next compete in a match at Hillcrest on Wednesday as they prepare for the Region III-5A tournament on January 30 that will be held at Fort Mill High School as Chesnee will next compete in a home match on Monday. Forrt Mill used a 20-8 run in the third quarter to give the Yellow Jackets their second win over Boiling Springs this week as they defeated the Bulldogs 67-54 on Friday night.
”We preach about having to come out strong in the third quarter and we didn’t do that tonight,” said Bulldogs head coach Curtis Nash. “They were out hustling us on fifty-fifty balls and they just played a lot tougher than we did tonight.” Boiling Springs got the scoring started with a three pointer from the left corner by Cam Earls off an assist from Corey Johnson to start a back and forth quarter that saw Fort Mill hold a 17-16 lead when the buzzer sounded to end the quarter. Jacob Webber led the Bulldogs in the quarter with six points. The Bulldogs grabbed the lead to start the second quarter when Corey Johnson stole a Fort Mill pass for a breakaway layup to put Boiling Springs up 18-17. The two teams battled to a tie in the quarter as both teams scored eleven points with the Yellow Jackets claiming a 28-27 halftime lead. While Boiling Springs scored the first points of the third quarter on a shot by Julius Camp Jr to give the Bulldogs a 29-28 lead, Fort Mill outscored the Bulldogs 20-6 from that point on to claim a 48-35 lead at the end of the third quarter. The Yellow Jackets run was led by Kyle Neibch who scored nine points to go along with two rebounds and a steal. In the fourth quarter the Bulldogs were able to trim the lead to ten points but weren’t able to cut any further into the Yellow Jackets lead as both teams scored nineteen points in the quarter. Boiling Springs was led on Friday night by Khalil Brown who scored 18 points to go along with eight rebounds and two steals. He was joined in double figures by Jacob Webber with 11 points to go along with four rebounds, one steal, and one assist. Fort Mill was led by Kyle Neibch who scored 31 points to go along with five rebounds and two steals. He was joined in double figures by Reed Fanta who scored 17 points for the Yellow Jackets. The Bulldogs will go out of region play next week as they’ll travel to Hillcrest on Tuesday night before returning to region competition the following Tuesday against Clover. ”I hope during this upcoming week we can get our kids legs fresh and finish out region play strong,” said Nash. With a 79-56 win over Boiling Springs, Fort Mill head basketball coach Dwayne Hartsoe got his 400th career win as the Jackets opened Region 3-5A play with a victory.
Led by four players in double figures, Fort Mill improved to 3-4 overall and 1-0 in the region while Boiling Springs fell to 5-7 and 1-1 in region play. “We are playing pretty good right now,” Hartsoe said. “It started at Lancaster, but there is always room for improvement.” Fort Mill and Boiling Springs played each other tightly in the opening quarter, but it was the second and third quarters where the Jackets really started to pull away. The Jackets unofficially shot 50 percent from the field in the game going 26-for-52 from the field, with mostly inside buckets. Kyle Neibch led with 22 points for Fort Mill as the majority of those points came at the foul line. Daniel Penosky added 12 points, eight of those in the second half, and both Jackson Fewster and Reed Fanta, each scored 11 points in the win, with both of them scoring most of those in the second half. Fort Mill outscored Boiling Springs 25-17 in the third quarter and opened the period on a 10-4 run to make it 45-28 coming out of the break at the half with a 35-24 lead. The Jackets hit 9-of-13 third quarter shots to go up 60-41 heading into the final quarter. Boiling Springs was led by 15 points from Khalil Brown and 14 points from Camden Earl in the loss. Fort Mill 45, Boiling Springs 37 The girls’ basketball game was a lot closer, but the results were the same with Fort Mill getting a 45-37 win to improve to 5-4 on the season and open Region 3-5A play 1-0. Fort Mill’s Nadia Dial led the Jackets with 10 points, despite fouling out in the third quarter with 2:07 left in the period. Fort Mill had a good start out of the gate as they went up 16-8. The second quarter was more of a defensive struggle for both teams as they only combined for nine points. The Jackets carried a 22-14 lead into the half and held off a Boiling Springs run in the second half. “When you go into region play, the goal is to come out 1-0 after each game,” said Fort Mill head coach Heather Klipa. “We did what we needed to do.” Boiling Springs rallied in the third quarter outscoring Fort Mill 12-8, as the Jackets clung to a 30-26 lead heading into the final period. In that quarter, Fort Mill opened on a 7-0 run and didn’t look back as they went on to outscore the Bulldogs 18-5. Both teams from Fort Mill and Boiling Springs are scheduled to be back at it Friday night with the Jackets making the road trip down I-85 for the second game in their season series. -Mac Banks from Fort Mill Prep Sports Boiling Springs used a 27-13 run over the first two quarters on Tuesday night to pick up a 55-44 victory over Nation Ford and open up the new year with a win in their first region matchup of the season. The Bulldogs run through in the first half was brought on by a strong defensive effort and it's something the Boiling Springs coaching staff has been preaching to their team since Christmas. "We've been talking to our guys about playing with pride on defense," said Bulldogs head coach Curtis Nash. "It started over the Christmas break where we challenged our guys to play with pride by not allowing your man to score while also being the first person to the rebound after the shot goes up." The Bulldogs got started on Tuesday night with a three point shot at the top of the key by Corey Johnson that sparked a 9-0 run for Boiling Springs over the first two minutes of the game. Johnson scored five of the nine points during the run to go along with baskets from Julius Camp Jr and Khalil Brown. Boiling Springs used the early first quarter run to establish a 16-10 lead at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter the Bulldogs started on a 7-0 run that began on a basket by Khalil Brown and was followed up with a three point basket by Austin Faile along with free throws by Quanye Nails. During the run the Bulldogs got some strong play in the post on defense as Jacob Webber had two blocks and Julius Camp added another one while the Bulldogs outscored the Falcons 11-3 in the second quarter to claim a 27-13 halftime lead. "We depend on Jacob to be our big man on our roster and he understands his role on this team," said Nash. "I don't expect to see him getting twenty points a game but we want him to get rebounds and blocks like he did tonight." Camp got the Bulldogs started off strong in the third quarter with a big basket in the post to continue Boiling Springs’ tough play around the basket. Fellow post player Dominique Johnson added to that performance with a strong third quarter as he scored three points to go along with four rebounds as Boiling Springs outscored Nation Ford 19-13 in the quarter to claim a 46-26 lead heading to the final quarter. In the fourth quarter the Falcons went on a run of their own starting the quarter on an 11-0 run before Corey Johnson ended the run with a jump shot to give the Bulldogs their first basket in the final quarter just past the midway point of the quarter. Nation Ford was unable to get any closer though as the Bulldogs outscored the Falcons 8-7 the rest of the way to claim the victory. "We played really well for three quarters tonight but had a little bit of a letdown there in the fourth quarter," said Nash. "I've been trying to preach to these guys all season that we have to play a full game which is four quarters and not just four minutes here and there." The Bulldogs were led on Tuesday night by Khalil Brown who scored sixteen points to go along with four rebounds and four steals while Corey Johnson joined him in double figures scoring with eleven points. Quadeir Hand led the Falcons in scoring with fourteen points on Tuesday night. Boiling Springs will return to action on Friday night as they travel to Nation Ford in a rematch of Tuesday night's contest. "We're going to let our kids know we have got to refocus because even though we got the win tonight it could be a whole different game on Friday," said Nash. "We'll watch film tomorrow and correct the areas where we had problems and work on improving where we did well." Girls GameThe Boiling Springs girls basketball team started off strong on Tuesday night but weren't able to contain Nation Ford in the second half falling to, the preseason #9 ranked team in 5A, Falcons 42-20 in their first region game of the season.
Boiling Springs held an 8-5 lead in the first quarter but the Falcons outscored the Bulldogs 6-0 to end the quarter and claimed an 11-8 lead when the first quarter ended. In the second quarter Nation Ford outscored the Bulldogs 7-4 to hold an 18-12 halftime lead. In the second half the Falcons took control of the game as they outscored Boiling Springs 24-8 to claim the victory and get their first region win of the season. Nation Ford was led by Elizabeth Cohen who scored twenty points on Tuesday night and wasn't the only Falcons player to score in double figures as Harper McKain joined the club with ten points. Boiling Springs was led in points by Laisha Labra who scored eight points while they also got an impressive night in the post from Sarah Ezell who grabbed sixteen rebounds along with two blocks on Tuesday night. |
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