BLYTHEWOOD – Westwood’s boys and girls basketball teams stormed the court Friday night, with the girls holding Richland Northeast to single digits each quarter in a 51-28 victory and the boys following up with a dominating 69-25 win over the Cavaliers.
The Westwood girls, who lost just two seniors from last year, remain young. The Redhawks have four seniors this year—Si’Niya Curry, Lauryn Entzminger, Kamirra Clarke, and Karen Green, but have two juniors, three sophomores, a freshman and two eighth graders.
One of those eighth-graders, Amari Alexander, scored 12 points and Curry added 10 points to lead the Westwood girls (7-2) over the Cavaliers.
“It’s still early, and because of their youth, we thought ‘box of chocolates,’” head coach Gregory Bauldrick said, inferring that season expectations depended on how well the younger players would perform.
As it turns out, Bauldrick added “When we opened it up, we found we got some pretty good chocolates.”
Besides Alexander, who averages 9.9 points and 3.4 rebounds per game, sophomore Lyric Rogers leads the team in scoring with 14.0 points per game. Sophomore Shaniya Heath, who averages 7.3 points per game, leads the team with rebounds with a 7.9 average on the boards.
Along with Curry, Entzminger, Clarke and Green provide years of experience on the court to help push their younger teammates.
We’ll just keep working,” he said. “We’ll keep trying to get better each time out, and I think we are. We had a couple of defensive assignment breakdowns and missing backcuts but we’ll get there, we understand what the mission is.”
The girls beat Summerville (4-3) 53-32 Tuesday and played host to Fairfield Central (1-3) Wednesday. They play St. James (5-2) Friday in the Kay Yow Division of the Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach.
The Westwood boys (8-0) got off to a 16-0 lead before Richland Northeast (3-4) sank its first shot, a 3-pointer from Omari Judge, with 1:15 left in the first quarter. Westwood defense kept the Cavaliers shut out from under the nets till Jordan Terry’s jumper with 3:21 left in the first half.
The Redhawks held a 38-7 lead at the half and played the game with a running clock in the final three minutes of the game when they led 61-21.
Westwood returned experience from last year’s 18-9 effort. Seven seniors and five juniors return on this year’s roster, with junior Cylan McLeod leading in scoring with a 13.8 points-per-game average. Senior Jayden Crews averages 13.2 points and senior D’Marcus Thomas averages 10.8 points.
On Friday night Junior Areil Huell scored 14 points and Thomas added 10 points to lead the Redhawks
“We’re a veteran group and we’re just having fun right now,” head coach Trent Robinson said. “We’re playing harder on defense and we’ve just got to stay the course, staying poised. It won’t be like this every game, but hopefully the end results will be good.”
This week the Westwood boys beat 5A Summerville (3-3) 62-57 Tuesday night. Jayden Crews scored 29 points and had 12 rebounds and four assists. Daytron Cockfield had 11 points and 11 rebounds.
The Redhawks played host to 2A Fairfield Central (2-3) Wednesday. Westwood heads to Florence to play North Augusta (6-0), the top 4A team in the state, in the Wilson Showcase Friday, and will play either 5A Division 1 Greenville (2-1) or a team from North Carolina Saturday.
Boys
Richland Northeast – 3-4-12-6 — 25
Westwood – 16-22-18-13 — 69
Richland Northeast
Ard 6, Terry 6, Parrott 4, Jacobs 4, Judge 3, Livingston 2.
Westwood
Ariel Huell 14, D’Marcus Thomas 10, Jenkins 9, Donaldson 8, Crews 7, McLeod 7, Veal 4, Hardy 3, Grant 3, Cockfield 2, Omiere 2.
Girls
Richland Northeast – 8-5-6-9 — 28
Westwood – 16-14-10-11 — 51
Richland Northeast
Latia Ray 12, Walker 7, Ellison 4, B. Belk 4, K. Belk 1.
Westwood
Amari Alexander 12, Si’niya Curry 10, Clarke 8, Heath 6, Roger 6, Dugger 4, Cummings 2, Green 2, Entzminger.