BLYTHEWOOD – The Blythewood girls basketball team has been on fire since returning to the court after winter break.
The Bengals have breezed through Region 5-5A competition going into Tuesday night’s home game against Sumter, and their region win streak didn’t stop with the Gamecocks. Blythewood shut out Sumter 19-0 in the first quarter, led 38-2 at halftime and finished with a dominating 53-17 victory.
Chase Thomas scored 19 points, India Williams added 11 points and Kiersten Fulton put up 10 points to lead the Bengals, who improved to 13-4 and 5-0 in the region.
The entire team worked over the Gamecocks in the first half.
“That’s one thing that we’ve been focusing on is coming out of the gate with more energy this year,” head coach Emily McElveen-Schaeffer said. “Last year a lot of times we were fighting back, we’d get off to a slow start and spend the second half fighting back. That’s one thing we’ve put the emphasis on this year.”
Check that task off the list of improvements the defending 5A Division I champions have made. In the past five region games the Bengals have outscored opponents 364-154, with victory margins of 33, 40, 46, 50, and 36 points.
“We didn’t want to be a third-quarter team,” McElveen-Schaeffer said. “We want to play all four quarters obviously, but we want to come out of the gate strong and jump on people from the beginning.”
Sumter (10-4, 2-1) had no solution for the Bengals’ uptempo play throughout the game. The Gamecocks’ finally scored double figures in the fourth quarter with a running clock and younger Bengals on the floor.
The boys game was not so great for the Bengals. Blythewood (7-11, 1-4) hung close with Sumter (12-5, 4-1), but didn’t have enough in the tank to knock off the Gamecocks in a 62-56 loss.
Elijah Major scored the team’s first 12 points—all in the second quarter, and finished the night with 16 points. Asa McQuaker had 15 points and nine rebounds.
The Bengals fought throughout the game to find an advantage over the Gamecocks, but the game was frustrating for head coach Zeke Washington.
“Learning to win is tough, and it looked like we had forgotten how to do that,” Washington said. “We used to win it around here, but now we’ve forgotten how to win. People aren’t going to give you games, you have to take them, and we’ve forgotten how to do that.”
The defending 5A Division 1 upper state champion Bengals kept close with the Gamecocks.
Trailing 17-12 early in the second quarter, Blythewood went on a 13-4 scoring run to take a 25-21 lead with 2:42 left in the first half.
Just as it seemed that the Bengals were getting their winning groove back, Sumter took it away. A Kenon Ward basket, followed by foul shots from Eli Britt and Ethan Budden, put the Gamecocks up 27-25 with less than a minute to go.
Donovan Mickle hit one of two foul shots for Blythewood to cut the lead to 27-26, but the Gamecocks ended the first half action with Nicholas White’s 3-pointer to go into the locker room holding a 30-26 lead.
Sumter opened the second half on a quick scoring run to make it 40-30 early in the third quarter, but Blythewood stayed close with baskets from Blaylen Hayes, McQuaker, Caleb Latimer and Mickle to get within 46-42.
Sumter held a 53-42 lead going into the fourth quarter and held a 59-51 lead with a minute to go in the game.
Blythewood made one last grasp at pulling out a win. McQuaker sank a 3-pointer, an after Washington called a timeout with 45 seconds left, McQuaker grabbed an offensive rebound and kicked the ball out to Jordan Collins, who sank a basket that cut the lead to 59-56 with 25 seconds left.
After Washington called a second timeout, Collins grabbed a defensive rebound, but the referees signaled a walk with 16 seconds left, which gave the ball back to Sumter.
The game ended with Blythewood fouling Gamecocks. Eli Britt made a foul shot with 15 seconds, and B.J. Brown hit two foul shots with 4 seconds left to put the game out of reach.
“The kids didn’t give up, but as a coach you’ve got to find a way to get them in the right places,” Washington said. “That’s my job and I’ve got to teach them how to do that, and that’s on me.”
Blythewood is off Friday night and will play at Ridge View Tuesday.
Boys
Sumter – 15-15-23-9 — 62
Blythewood – 12-14-16-14 — 56
Sumter
B.J. Brown 23, Nicholas White 12, Eli Britt 12, Ward 6, Wright 3, Budden 2, Gregg 2, Richardson 2.
Blythewood
Elijah Major 16, Asa McQuaker 15, Shepard 7, Collins 6, Latimer 5, Mikle 4, Hayes 3.
Girls
Sumter – 0-2-4-11 — 17
Blythewood – 19-19-9-6 — 53
Sumter
A. Myers 8, K. Myers 3, Thomas 3, Gregg 2, Tindal 1.
Blythewood
Chase Thomas 19, India Williams 11, Kiersten Fulton 10, Spain 6, M.Thomas 2, Hightower 2, Guerrero 2, Stovall 1.