CONWAY -- Conway coach Mike Hopkins’ goal coming into Saturday’s game against Myrtle Beach was for his team to put together a full 32 minutes on the court.
The Tigers fulfilled that goal by hitting free throws down the stretch and closed out the Seahawks to win 47-40.
With 21.4 seconds left in the game, Conway was up 44-40 after Myrtle Beach’s Solomon Cooper got a rebound and put it back. The Seahawks quickly fouled Torrance Evans, who hit one of two free throws to push the lead to five. After an unsuccessful trip down the court for Myrtle Beach, Conway’s Devin Strothers was fouled and nailed both free throws to close out the game.
Just the night before, Conway struggled at the stripe before barely holding on to beat St. James.
“I told the guys, ‘In close games, that’s what is going to get it done for you,’ ” Hopkins said about free throw shooting. “We were able to hit them tonight.”
Conway led16-5 after a quarter but would see the Seahawks rally in the second.
The Seahawks started chipping away at the 14-point deficit that ballooned after Trevon Longs’ three-point play on a runner. Back-to-back 3s from Tramond Wilson and Solomon Cooper got Myrtle Beach within single digits. Wilson pulled the Seahawks to within seven (19-12) when he got fouled and hit the first of two free throws.
Cooper pushed the Tigers’ lead back to a 12 with scores on two straight possessions.
Wynoe hit a pair of runners to get the lead back into single digits as Myrtle Beach was down 24-16 at the break.
“We played the way we wanted to play,” Hopkins said. “We got them to play how we wanted them to play. We knew it was going to be an up-and-down game and that would be hard for us. We did a great job of controlling the tempo.”
The third quarter was back-and-forth. The Tigers and Seahawks would trade buckets before Conway pushed the lead to 11. However, the Seahawks fought back to get within seven as the third quarter ended.
Myrtle Beach – without one of its leading scorers in E.J. Goings – continued to fight back but fell short.
“It’s tough when we don’t have everybody,” Myrtle Beach coach Craig Martin said. “We just got to do a better job of taking advantage of shots that we have. We came out a little bit slow and couldn’t make shots. It’s tough when you’re not putting the ball in the basket.”
MB girls cruise to win
The Myrtle Beach girls cruised to a win over Conway 67-31 in the opener.
“Last night, I didn’t think we had a great effort on defense,” Myrtle Beach’s coach Brian Kiper said of the Seahawks’ 54-48 win over Lake City. “We met today before we got on the bus and we talked a lot about the defense and having a better mental approach to defense.”
Kiper’s talk must have worked because the Seahawks defense was stifling.
Myrtle Beach didn’t allow a single point until there was just over two minutes left in the first quarter. Within that six-minute span, Myrtle Beach built a 16-point lead thanks in part to contributions from Khadijah Sessions and Christiana Myers. Sessions, who finished with a game-high 27 points, had six points and Myers had five in that span.
Myrtle Beach continued to slow the Tigers and wound up with a 39-13 lead at halftime en route to a convincing victory.
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