North Myrtle Beach Times Serving our Community and the Grand Strand for over 50 years
By John Smithson
The North Myrtle Beach Lady Chiefs continued their undefeated season last Friday night with a 68-33 victory over Westwood High School in the SCHSL division II 5A playoffs.
The Chiefs are seeded number two in the lower state playoffs and met three-seed Berkely on Tuesday night. The winner of that game would meet the winner of the game between number one seed Goose Creek and number 4 Chapin for the lower state championship.
Westwood came into last Tuesday’s game with a 17-10 season record. The Chiefs defense paid quick dividends as a three-pointer by Sophia Powell and baskets by Maddie Vereen and Aubree Anglin and two free throws by Jurnee Blye gave the Chiefs a 9-2 lead with 5:35 left in the first quarter.
Two trips to the foul line by Westwood narrowed the Chiefs lead to 9-6, but two consecutive baskets by Powell and an interception and basket by Vereen and it was 15-6 Chiefs and they led 15-10 after the first quarter.
Westwood again rallied to a 15-12 deficit, but Vereen’s drive and basket, a Powell steal of an inbound pass and basket, two more Vereen buckets and an Anglin three made it 26-12. The Chiefs outscored the Lady Redhawks 11-6 for the rest of the second quarter and led 37-18 at halftime.
The Chiefs offense started slowly in the third quarter, and they held a 38-20 lead after two minutes of the quarter before consecutive baskets by Blye, Anglin, Powell and Blye again upped the lead to 46-20 with over four minutes to play in the quarter. The game tempo slowed again, and the Chiefs lead was 52-22 going into the fourth quarter.
With two minutes gone in the fourth quarter, Vereen scored and was fouled. She made the free throw for a 55-27 lead. A jumper by Vereen, layup by Powell and a layup by Vereen made it 61-30.
The Chiefs bench got some chances in the final minutes of the game. Sophie Lewis hit a three-pointer with under two minutes left in the game and Blye’s turnaround jumper was the last basket for the Chiefs until Jailah Livingston scored at the buzzer for the 68-33 final score.
The Chiefs scoring was led by 22 points from Sophia Powell, 19 points by Maddie Vereen and 10 points each from Aubree Anglin and Jurnee Blye.
The scoring stats did not go unnoticed by coach Heather Kearney in post-game comments. “When we get those games where we’re showing offensive balance, those are the best games because it’s tough to key in on any one individual by the other team. We also battled under the boards. We got 14 offensive boards which was great.”
“Westwood is a very athletic team. We knew that coming in and knew they were good shot blockers, offensive rebounders and that they liked the transition game, so we tried to offset that and take a little bit away from their strengths.”
Westwood had a hard time getting started in the game. Kearney pointed to the Chiefs defense and “the homecourt advantage. That’s what you play for all season. They had to get on a bus, travel a couple of hours. We talked about that. They had to play last Tuesday. We didn’t. They had to travel. We didn’t. We wanted to come out and get started right away and set the tone early, and we did that,” Keaney said.
The Chiefs game Tuesday night was a rematch of a game the Chiefs lost last year to Berkely. Kearney put it this way. “We got to advance to another game. That’s what you play for.”
