BOILING SPRINGS, SC - The Boiling Springs Bulldogs girls' basketball team used a four-point run over the last thirty seconds of the game on Friday to come away with a 38-35 win over Fort Mill that snapped a region losing streak that dated back to 2019.
"It feels good to get this win," said Bulldogs head coach Dwayne Lytle. "I told our girls that tonight is what good team defense looks like. It's a good win for these girls, who experienced the 0-10 region last season, to get the first region win against a very good Fort Mill team. I'm just at a loss for words because I'm so happy for these girls." Boiling Springs got the game started on a three-pointer from the right side by senior Ansley King to take an early 3-0 lead and start a big night for the Bulldogs senior guard. At the end of the first quarter the Bulldogs held a 6-4 lead after sophomore Kylie McMillan joined King with another three-pointer for the only Boiling Springs points in the quarter. In the second quarter the Bulldogs held a 19-17 lead heading towards the halftime break behind a combined nine points from King and Amiah Ellis but the Yellow Jackets were able to take a 20-19 halftime lead when Natalie Michelow hit a three-pointer from the top right of the court to give her team the lead just before the buzzer sounded. Boiling Springs was able to tie the game at the end of the third quarter at 30-30 after getting a combined eight points from King and Olivia Shirley, giving the Bulldogs a clean slate heading into the final quarter of play. The Bulldogs held a lead for most of the fourth quarter but with thirty-one seconds left in the game it looked like they may have the victory slip from their fingers when the Yellow Jackets Reagan Reyes hit two free-throws to give her team a 35-34 lead. Boiling Springs answered the challenge on the very next play of the game when Kylie McMillan found Ansley King going down the right side of the court with a nice pass that King caught and finished with a layup to give the Bulldogs a 36-35 lead. After getting a turnover on the next Fort Mill possession the Bulldogs went to the line after a foul but weren't able to find bottom of the net but that's when Sarah Ezell came up with her biggest play of the game. When the free throw rolled out, Ezell grabbed the rebound, her ninth of the game, amongst a group of Fort Mill players before putting a shot back up that went in and pushed the Bulldogs lead to 38-35. A final second attempt by Fort Mill to tie the game fell short helping to secure the victory for the Bulldogs. Ansley King led the Bulldogs attack on Friday night as she recorded 18 points along with five rebounds and a steal. Coach Lytle said that the performance by King this year has been impressive, and he hopes that college coaches are taking notice of how she's playing this season. "I hope these college coaches are watching the game films on her because that girl is putting her heart into the game," said Lytle. "She practices as hard as she plays and that's what is showing up in each game. I'm really excited for her because this summer she had doubts whether she could compete at this level, and I told her 'Look at you now girl' and I couldn't be anymore happy for her." Boiling Springs also got key contributions from their whole team as Madilyn Morris added five key rebounds in the first half and Tijah Davis got a key layup in the second quarter along with starting guard Kylie McMillan adding seven rebounds from the point guard spot. Coach Lytle said that he reminded his team the day before that for them to win on Friday it was going to have to be a team effort. "I told them when we left practice on Thursday that this had to be a team effort to get the win and said that anyone coming off the bench had to be focused going into the game," said Lytle. "I challenged them and they accepted that challenge. I told everyone when they came off the bench that there couldn't be a drop off and each person had to be value added. In fact, before anyone checked into the game, they had to look at me and say 'value added' before walking to the scorer's table and I was glad to see that mentality from each of them tonight." Natalie Michelow led the scoring for Fort Mill as she had 14 points to go along with six rebounds on Friday night. In the boy's game a bad third quarter for the Bulldogs led to them falling to Fort Mill 60-41 on Friday night. Fort Mill had three different players score in double figures on Friday night as Will Stumpf led the way with 16 points followed by Kyle Neibch with 15 points and Gabe Tooper with 14 points. Boiling Springs was led by Tre Locklear who finished with 11 points for the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs won't return to the court until next Friday when they travel to Clover for another region matchup before returning home the following week for home region games against Gaffney on Tuesday and Nation Ford on Friday. Comments are closed.
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