IRMO – The Blythewood girls basketball team won its first state championship in March with a 62-56 victory over Summerville in the 5A Division 1 final.
The 2024-2025 run of 28-2 was a testament to the players’ and coaches’ hard work. This season, the work continues as the Bengals look to continue the momentum into region play and another postseason run.
Tuesday night at Irmo, the Blythewood girls shook off three early season defeats to top teams and eased past the Yellow Jackets for a 73-53 victory.
Senior Chase Thomas led the way with 23 points, while fellow seniors India Williams scored 16 points and Hayley Hightower delivered 12. Eighth-grader Kirsten Fulton scored 11 points.
Blythewood (2-3) sank 12 3-pointers that accounted for almost half the Bengals scoring.
“We have a team full of guards,” Bengals head coach Emily McElveen-Schaeffer said. We have a small team so we have to capitalize from the outside. We can’t play inside with a lot of people.”
Success from behind the 3-point line also offset some ball-handling struggles closer to the nets.
“Tonight wasn’t pretty, too many mistakes that we’ve got to clean up, and discipline, things like that,” McElveen-Schaeffer said. “A win’s a win, I’ll take it, but it’s definitely not what I wanted to see.”
The Bengals opened the season with a 73-63 loss to Camden Nov. 28 and a 65-49 loss to Dorman the next day. Blythewood cruised to a 79-34 win over White Knoll Dec. 2 but fell 59-51 at North Augusta.
“We’ve had a tough start but I knew that coming in,” McElveen-Schaeffer said. “I scheduled a hard non-region and we played some tough teams right off the bat but that just shows them adversity.”
Blythewood overcame that adversity at Irmo, taking a 20-14 lead by first quarter’s end and holding a 37-29 lead at halftime. A 12-2 scoring run midway through the third quarter boosted the Bengals to a 52-37 lead, a margin they kept with a 59-43 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Lailah Singletary scored 24 points and Abby Livingston scored 22 points for the Yellow Jackets (6-1).
Blythewood’s non-region schedule doesn’t get any easier Friday against Dutch Fork. The Silver Foxes (6-0) shut down Dreher 58-13 Tuesday and play a hard physical game much like Irmo did. McElveen-Schaeffer said Blythewood needs to play cleaner under the nets and
“It’s up here, it’s a mentality thing,” McElveen-Schaeffer said, pointing to her head. “They’ve got to want it more than the other team, and we can’t get outplayed and out-hustled. It’s the small things that they’ve got to do better. It doesn’t come down to talent, it comes down to wanting it and effort.”
The Blythewood boys, with the loss of top players T.J. Lewis (25.8 points per game) and Tyler Stephens (12.5 points) from their 5A Division 1 state championship appearance last season, have much more work to do after a 60-45 loss to the Yellow Jackets (4-2).
The Bengals (2-4) got off to a 12-6 start in the first quarter. In the final minute, though, the Yellow Jackets scored six points with Antwoine Pierce’s back-to-back steals and buckets under the net and Khiry White’s basket.
Jordan Collins’ field goal gave Blythewood a 14-12 lead going into the second quarter, but Irmo erased that lead quickly and held a 24-21 lead at halftime.
By then the battle between two up-tempo, physical teams looked to carry over to the second half, but the Yellow Jackets opened the third quarter with a 20-4 scoring run and led 44-25 by the 1:03 mark.
Irmo led 46-29 going into the fourth quarter and while Blythewood opened with 3-pointers from T.J. Troy and Asa McQuaker, the defense couldn’t hold off the Yellow Jackets.
McQuaker led the Bengals with 12 points and Troy scored 11.
Irmo’s Christian Brown led all scorers with 23 points. Pierce had 11.
Blythewood plays host to White Knoll (4-3) Saturday and Chapin (2-3) Tuesday.
Girls
Blythewood – 20-17-21-14 — 73
Irmo – 14-15-14-10 — 53
BLYTHEWOOD
Chase Thomas 25, India Williams 16, Hayley Hightower 12, Kirsten Fulton 11, Aniya Guerrero 7, Madison Thomas 2.
Irmo
Lailah Singletary 24, Abby Livingston 22, Stokes 6, Snowden 1.
Boys
Blythewood – 14-7-8-16 — 45
Irmo – 12-12-22-14 — 60
Blythewood
Asa McQuaker 12, T.J. Brown 11, Major 9, Hayes 4, Mickle 2, Pernell 2, Collins 2, Reeves 2, Scriven 1.
Irmo
Christian Brown 23, Antwoine Pierce 11, Arrington 6, Singletary 4, McCray 4, White 3, Melendez 2, Thompson 2, Grisset 1.
