Myrtle Beach girls basketball team continues roll, beats Panthers

The Myrtle Beach girls basketball team is still unbeaten and continues to roll.

However, the Seahawks are not satisfied. Not yet.

Myrtle Beach junior Nia Sumpter had a game-high 23 points and junior Kiana Adderton scored 13 as the Seahawks cruised to a home win over Carolina Forest to improve to 5-0, but Adderton still feels like the Seahawks still have yet to reach their peak.

“I’m very proud of my teammates. Even though we haven’t lost a game, I feel like we haven’t been playing that well but we’re showing a lot of improvement and I think we’re only going to get better,” Adderton said. “Tonight was a good win as far as working together and we’re preparing ourselves for better teams.”

The Panthers kept it close with Myrtle Beach to start the game, but the Seahawks came out strong in the second half. Myrtle Beach went on an 8-2 run to open the third quarter, and the Seahawks outscored Carolina Forest 24-6 in the frame.

In fact, Myrtle Beach held the Panthers to just nine second-half points en route to the win.

“We were pretty confident at that point,” Sumpter said. “We set a goal at halftime; we didn’t beat it, but we got close. We wanted to shut them out in the second half, but we let them put up a few. I think we still played really well.”

“It was a good win. We had a lot of team effort and that’s what did it for us,” Sumpter added.

The Seahawks have been without head coach Jennifer Dennison since the beginning of the year as she has been away from the team on medical leave. Dennison was in attendance Friday night, but was limited to just a spectator role as her team rolled under interim coach Larry Bowen. The Seahawks hope to have Dennison back sometime this month but while she’s been away, the team hasn’t disappointed her.

“We’re doing it for [Dennison],” Adderton said.

Bowen has been pleased with the team’s defensive effort, especially on Friday. Bowen still thinks the team has yet to reach it’s full potential, too.

“I thought, overall, we played pretty well. We played good defense, got the offense going and got up and down the floor,” Bowen said. “That’s really what we want to do, run the floor and I thought we did a good job of that tonight. Once again, defense was pretty solid and I thought it was a good game. I think we can get a little better in the halfcourt offense, so that’s something we’ll need to work on.”

All of Myrtle Beach’s wins have come over Class AAA programs so far as the Seahawks have beat the Panthers twice, Socastee twice and Conway once. Adderton said she feels playing against such big schools early on will only help the team.

“It’s great,” she said. “I think it’s helping us to play better as a team.”

Bowen has noticed his team taking an unselfish approach as it continues it’s roll.

“I think right now the morale is pretty high. They’re confident,” he said. “We’re winning; that always helps. They believe in themselves and we just need to keep working and keep getting better and spread [the ball] out like we have. They undertand that, and that’s what we try to do everyday.”

Even Myrtle Beach’s opponents have taken notice of the team’s dominance.

“They’re a very good team and a very good program,” Carolina Forest assistant coach Brian Arroz. “Their history speaks for itself. But we’ve played them a little better each time and that’s something to build on. So we’re happy with that at least.”

The Panthers have an opportunity to bounce back Tuesday as they host Laney (Wilmington, N.C.) at 6 p.m. Arroz just wants his girls to continue to play clean basketball.

“Right now we’re seven deep and [Myrtle Beach] runs about 10 deep and they pressure the ball. That’s tough to deal with but that says a lot about our girls,” he said. “That’s one of the things we pushed tonight, we wanted to play them cleanly. I think if we do that every game, we’ll be happy.”

“We potentially have a chance to have a pretty good year, so we’re going to continue working hard and try to build and just get better every game as the season goes on,” Arroz added.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks are shooting for the stars. Sumpter said she can see her team hoisting a Class AAA state championship trophy at the end of the year. But it won’t come easy.

“I see us hopefully winning a state championship,” Sumpter said. “Only if we play like we’ve been playing, as a team.”

This story was originally published December 11, 2015 at 11:27 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach girls basketball team continues roll, beats Panthers."