Millbrook gets up big early, holds on to beat A.C. Flora for Shootout by the Sea title

Millbrook started strong and held off a furious second half rally from A.C. Flora to hang on for a win in a Carolinas capitals clash, 74-70, on Wednesday night to win the boys championship of The Shootout by the Sea at North Myrtle Beach High School.

The Wildcats, of Raleigh, N.C., could do little wrong early, charging out to a 27-6 lead midway through the first half before the Columbia-based Falcons hit their first field goal.

“We had a great start,” Millbrook coach Scott McInnes said. “Everything was going our way. Defensively we showed up ready to play. Offensively we did a good job attacking, knocked down some good shots.”

A.C. Flora began to whittle away at the margin and cut the lead to 44-26 at the break.

That’s when Kendale Hampton and the Falcons shifted gears.

Hampton scored 19 of his game-high 26 points in the second half on four 3-pointers and a 7-for-7 effort at the foul line.

Hampton cut the lead to 9 points with a 3 with just over three minutes to play, and hit threes to cut the lead to 4 and 5 points over the game’s final minutes, but Jordan Whitfield for the Wildcats was 4-of-4 at the line in the last two minutes to help Millbrook remain undefeated.

“I thought in the second half when they made the run, they just started playing awesome. (Hampton) was fantastic,” McInnes said. “We started making some turnovers and missed some layups and let them get back into it. But a lot of that had a lot to do with how good (Hampton) is. I mean he’s really, really good. “

Faison Brock finished with a team-high 19 points for Millbrook, and Whitfield had 10 and Adrian Scarborough had 10.

Christian Brown had 17 points and Brandon Davis added 11 points for the Falcons.

This story was originally published December 23, 2015 at 11:37 PM with the headline "Millbrook gets up big early, holds on to beat A.C. Flora for Shootout by the Sea title."