North Myrtle Beach rallies to earn hard-fought win over St. James

As a first-year head coach, Alvin Green often finds himself learning on the job.

Oddly, one of his first lessons he learned on the North Myrtle Beach bench is his players are pretty much in the same situation.

So when a hot-shooting St. James squad staked itself to an early lead, Green knew class was in session — and his Chiefs would either sink or swim.

Spending much of the night playing from behind, a fourth quarter rally allowed North Myrtle Beach to pull out its Region VII-4A opener against the Sharks, 62-54.

“It was very important. We’ve been striving to come together as a team, and we kept plugging along,” Green said. “We had a great day at practice (Thursday) and I give all the kudos to my guys. They played hard, left it all on the floor, stuck together and what not. Obviously we didn’t make free throws down the stretch like I’d like, but we finished the game and took care of business down the stretch.”

With the game tied at 36 midway through the third, a 10-4 run by the Chiefs allowed them to seize control. While St. James pulled to within a bucket on several occasions down the stretch — largely courtesy of a solid effort by wingman Jordan Furlough’s 23 points — mistakes at crucial moments sealed its fate.

“The fourth quarter we ran out of gas,” said St. James boys basketball coach Jeremy Heinold. “We were only down two, and go down for two 1-and-1, and aren’t able to connect on either one. We were right there at the end … but our young team has to learn how to finish these games off.”

According to Green, the word ‘Finish’ was one prevalent in the North Myrtle Beach huddle during the game’s final minutes. Chris Johnson served as the chief catalyst in following his coach’s orders, scoring eight of his game-high 23 points in the final stanza.

“We only have one senior (Johnson), and he came to play,” the North Myrtle Beach boys hoops coach said. “He was active and communicating, and being a leader most importantly. He did that for us tonight, and everyone followed his lead.”

Along with Johnson, junior guard Reese Finch had 7 points in a winning effort.

This story was originally published January 6, 2017 at 11:57 PM with the headline "North Myrtle Beach rallies to earn hard-fought win over St. James."