ROCK HILL (Jan. 18, 2017) – The Westwood Redhawks took to the road to face South Pointe in a thriller of a game that went down to the final shot, but the Redhawks were the last team standing and won the close contest 58-55.
“I thought we did a really good job with our press defense,” Redhawks’ head coach Jeff Dibattisto said. “I thought they were really athletic out there, very quick, and I thought we did a great job handling that early, and I thought that gave us a lift when they couldn’t press us when they wanted to. Defensively we always have to continue to improve.”
Westwood took a few minutes to get their wheels turning in the first, and the Stallions jumped on top with an early 10-5 lead, but the Redhawks quickly erased the early deficit with a 15-2 run and ended the first ahead 20-12.
The second quarter was a slugfest with both teams trading buckets. The Redhawk lead ballooned to as much as 13, but shrank to as little as four before they finally finished the half ahead 37-30.
Another back and forth third quarter caused the lead to fluctuate this time to as much as 15, and South Pointe got the lead down to as low as three. Westwood found a stride to end the quarter, ending on a 9-2 run to go into the fourth with a 50-40 advantage.
South Pointe countered with a 10-3 run to open the final quarter of play. BJ Davis sank a crucial bucket for the Stallions with under 1:30 to come within two of Westwood’s lead, but missed a plus-one opportunity from the line.
Maliek Wilcox also missed a crucial opportunity at the free-throw line for South Pointe when he missed the first half of a one-and-one, but the Stallions were still alive. They were down just three with 2.3 seconds left to go, and with the ball in their hands.
Austin Wilson got the last shot for the Stallions, but it was not close to going down. The brick shot locked up the 58-55 victory.
“We’re without one of our starters,” Dibattisto said. “We’re one down and we just did a fantastic job of coming together as a group, and I couldn’t more prouder of my guys.”
Westwood 58, South Pointe 55
WHS: 20-17-13-8 – 58
SPHS: 12-18-10-15 – 55
Westwood
Russel Jones Jr 17, Cameron Wormage 15, Xavier Dobey 14, Terrance Barnes 6, Adam Douglas 4, Dante Brown 2.
South Pointe
BJ Davis 19, D.K. Kendrick 16, Maliek Wilcox 10, JiMicah Hemphill 7, Cort Neely 2, Keshawn Veal 1.
