How North Myrtle Beach ran into an all-Westside story in the state championship game
North Myrtle Beach reached Thursday’s S.C. Class 4A girls basketball state championship game by slowing the pace and grinding out wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
Westside was having none of it at the USC Aiken Convocation Center.
Westside employed a trapping three-quarter court press, and pressure on the ball in the half court, to speed up the Chiefs from the opening tip.
The pressure defenses led to 26 Chiefs turnovers, including 15 via steals, that were a determining factor in the Rams’ 44-30 win that allowed them to hoist their first state championship trophy since 1992.
North Myrtle Beach was seeking its second girls basketball state championship and first in 35 years in the program’s first title game appearance since 1990.
“I definitely think our first opportunity to be here at the state tournament really caused a lot of our girls to have some nerves in the very beginning,” said fourth-year North Myrtle Beach coach Brooke Smith. “The press we had prepared for but the nerves got them better and they just had a very difficult time breaking the press and it set us back from the beginning. As a result we weren’t going down and finishing our buckets and scoring.”
The Chiefs won a region title and a Lower State championship, and finished 10-2 in a season that was shortened by the coronavirus.
“This season has been very challenging with COVID and I told them I was proud of them for getting through it and how resilient they’ve been through this situation, and that this is a special group because they got to experience that,” Smith said. “No one expected us to be on this stage today and I’m very proud of them for who they are and who they’re going to be when they leave, especially the seniors. It’s just been a great experience overall.”
After the Chiefs held four-time defending 4A state champion North Augusta and Darlington to a combined 46 points in quarterfinal and semifinal wins, Westside nearly matched the two-game total.
Westside (20-2) recorded five steals in the game’s opening four minutes and built a 14-1 lead through a first quarter in which a shell-shocked North Myrtle Beach was 0-for-5 from the field with 10 turnovers.
“We knew we had to put the pressure on early and make them really uncomfortable from just going down and setting up their offense,” said Westside coach Jackie Roberts, the daughter-in-law of William Roberts, who led the Rams to three state titles in four years through 1992 as the head coach. “That’s been our game plan the whole year. We have the athleticism and the kids to do it, the smarts to do it.”
North Myrtle Beach senior Daveona Hatchell finished her high school career with a double-double consisting of 12 points and 11 rebounds, and junior Adaiah Vereen added a double-double of her own with 12 points and 13 rebounds.
Westside’s best player and top offensive weapon, junior guard Destiny Middleton, scored a game-high 17 points with 10 rebounds.
Though Middleton missed her first three shots, including a couple good looks inside, she had two early steals and went 4-for-4 at the free throw line before hitting a 3-pointer.
Freshman center Olivia Randolph and sophomore Shakari Gaines hit their first 3-point attempts to help Westside build a 12-1 lead.
A layin by junior guard Aziyah Bell just before the first-quarter buzzer on a dish from Middleton gave Westside its 14-1 lead.
NMB scored five straight points capped by a Hatchell cutting layin from Chrisalyn Hemingway midway through the second quarter to cut a 16-1 deficit to 10 points, and was within nine points following a Hatchell 3-pointer.
Though the Chiefs settled down to outscore Westside 8-6 in the second quarter to trail by 11 at halftime, they finished the first half 2-of-11 from the field with 16 turnovers.
Westside shot just 21 percent from the field in the first half with six baskets and seven turnovers, but the turnover differential led to 17 more shots for the Rams in the opening two quarters.
Hatchell had seven of NMB’s nine first-half points and went to work in the paint early in the second half. She hit two early baskets, and an Vereen turning baby hook gave the Chiefs a 6-2 run open the second half and pulled them within seven points.
Inside baskets by Destinee Vereen and Adaiah Vereen closed the deficit to six points with 3:30 to play in the third quarter.
The Chiefs had a pair of 3-point shots to pull within three points bounced off the rim, and a three-point play on a fast-break layin by Westside’s Ahri Scott pushed the lead back to nine. Westside led by seven entering the fourth quarter.
A pair of turnovers in the first minute of the final quarter helped Westside go on a 6-0 run in the opening minute to push its advantage to 13 points.
The Chiefs cut a 15-point deficit to 10 with 3 minutes to play following baskets by Riley Vincent and Adaiah Vereen, but they could get no closer than nine points in the final two minutes.
“Our defense really came out and started shutting them down, stopping a lot of their shots and getting rebounds, getting second chances and coming back,” Smith said. “We changed our offenses a little bit and changed our defense too, and it was working and it was doing great things. But still down the stretch we couldn’t stop the turnovers.”
Hatchell moved to North Myrtle Beach from Dillon in sixth grade and was recruited out of a rec league gym to play junior varsity. She finished her five-year varsity career with more than 1,000 points and seven rebounds shy of 1,000 boards,
“I enjoyed this ride my senior year. It has been amazing playing for North Myrtle Beach,” Hatchell said. “It’s been an amazing journey. The underclassmen have been so amazing. They worked hard tonight and they fought and fought. They never even gave up. We were down by a lot and we tried to close that but we just couldn’t. After that [start] we just showed up. That’s all you can do.”
The girls basketball team is the latest team at North Myrtle Beach High to play for a state championship, as the school’s athletic programs have elevated their level of play.
Since the 2018-19 school year, the football team reached the Class 4A state championship game in December, the volleyball team won state titles in the fall of 2018 and 2019, and the wrestling team reached the state finals in 2019.
Smith’s son, Tyree, was a senior on the football team this fall, so she was able to enjoy that team’s success with a vested interest, and her team was able to carry the momentum of the school’s athletics in general.
“A lot of players started coming out and they got really excited when the saw the football team winning,” Smith said. “ . . . They really wanted to make that part of their run, too, and they made it happen.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2021 at 1:47 PM.
