BLYTHEWOOD – The Blythewood boys basketball team battled shot-for-shot with Westwood for most of the first half of their game Friday night, but at intermission the Bengals found themselves on the short end of a 26-21 halftime score.
The Redhawks held Blythewood’s top scorer, T.J. Lewis, to a basket and two free throws over that time.
“They gave him extra attention, which is warranted,” Bengals head coach Zeke Washington said. “And that’s a lesson we’ve learned from.”
One lesson that Westwood came to was that Lewis eventually found a way to the basket in the second half, scoring 19 of his 23 points and leading Blythewood to a 62-46 victory over their arch rivals.
Besides Lewis, Tyler Stephens scored 14 points and five other players put points on the board for Blythewood (17-3, 6-1) including a 28-point third-quarter run to jump to a 49-41 advantage going into the fourth.
The Redhawks’ 7-2 scoring run at the end of the second quarter gave Westwood (15-4, 3-4) a 26-21 advantage at intermission. The Redhawks, who beat the Bengals 58-53 in the region opener Jan. 3, looked to expand on that lead in the second half, but the Blythewood defense proved too intense.
Westwood is a very good team, very fast, very well-coached,” Washington said. “I think our kids came out better in the third and fourth quarter, with a little bit more energy.”
After the Redhawks missed on a pair of foul shots early in the third quarter, Lewis sank two free throws and Stephens made good on a three-point play to tie the game at 26 by the 7:06 mark.
Westwood and Blythewood were tied up again on Sean Goddard’s basket with 5:15 left to play in the third, and A.J. Veal hit the back end of a 2-shot foul to give Westwood a 31-30 lead with 5:11 to go.
Torrean Sims sank a pair of foul shots at the 4:31 mark of the third to put Blythewood up 32-31, and that was the last lead change of the game. The Bengals finished out the quarter outscoring Westwood 17-10, then limited the Redhawks to two baskets and a foul shot in the final eight minutes.
“We’re trying to get better defensively, trying to put people in the right places,” Washington said. “The guys have taken a little bit more pride in what they’ve been doing. We have to know that when we’re not hot offensively, we can always be hot defensively, and we’re trying to get our kids to understand that.”
Daytron Cockfield and D’Marcus Thomas led the Redhawks with 12 points apiece. Goddard put up 10 points.
Blythewood beat Spring Valley (4-11, 0-6) 77-57 and Westwood fell 53-50 to Ridge View (13-7, 6-0) Tuesday night. The Bengals play host to Lugoff-Elgin (13-7, 4-3) and Westwood takes on Spring Valley Friday.
Westwood – 10-16-16-5 — 46
Blythewood – 11-10-28-13 — 62
W – D’Marcus Thomas 12, Daytron Cockfield 12, Sean Goddard 10, Veal 6, Crews 4, Archie 2, L. Brown 1. B – T.J. Lewis 23, Tyler Stephens 14, Davis 6, Major 6, Sims 6, Jones 5, Hill 2.