Myrtle Beach girls use defense to overcome Goose Creek

The Myrtle Beach girls basketball team had its worst offensive performance of the season Friday night.

Good thing the Seahawks’ defense had one of its best.

Myrtle Beach – ranked No. 1 in Class AAA – limited Goose Creek – ranked No. 4 in Class AAAA – to just 11 points at halftime and held off the Gators for a 30-24 victory. The Seahawks’ 30 points on offense was their lowest point total of the year, and the 24 points the Seahawks’ defense allowed was also the lowest total of the season for the squad.

The Seahawks avenged a 47-38 loss to Goose Creek from last Saturday and snapped a three-game losing streak.

“I thought it was a great game, and I thought we had a great effort on the defensive end,” Myrtle Beach coach Jennifer Dennison said. “We just need to work better on offense by executing, making better passes and working on the little things.”

Junior Nia Sumpter played huge part in keeping the Seahawks afloat Friday, scoring eight points and grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds.

“One thing I like about Nia is that she is a team player,” Dennison said. “She does the little things to help her teammates out and plays the best she can on defense, crashing the boards night in and night out. Best of all, she’s a motivation to the team.”

Myrtle Beach was glad to build a 10-point lead at the end of the third frame, because it had just two points in the final quarter.

“We had to come back from the last loss we took; that one was shaky,” Sumpter said. “The offense was shaky tonight, too. But we played good on the defensive end and were able to hold them down, which won us the game.”

Junior Kiana Adderton contributed eight points and grabbed five boards, and Jalah Horton scored six points for the Seahawks.

Mariah Linney had a game-high 10 points, and Ericka Broughton chipped in five to pace Goose Creek (10-2).

“We knew it was going to be one of the more physical games we’ve played. I thought, defensively, we played pretty good to only give up 30 points,” Gators coach Tim Baldwin said. “That’s not bad at all, we just struggled offensively and when you can’t execute against a good team, that’s what happens. You’ve got to execute and we shot poorly from the free throw line, also. Against a team like this, you knock down six or seven of those free throws and it’s a different game. It’s the little things you do when you play good teams that’s going to separate you and tonight we didn’t.”

Baldwin expects two physical games against the Seahawks to help his squad as they head into Region VII-AAAA play.

“That’s one of the games we highlight on the calendar. All their players came back from last year and they have a really good team,” he said. “So, going into region play, we want to play top competition; that’s why we traveled two hours to get here. Same thing last week; you want to play good competition to prepare yourself down the road in region play and playoffs.”

Myrtle Beach, which started the season 11-0, is primed to make another big run through Region VII-AAA. The team’s region slate starts Saturday, too, as No. 5 Wilson hosts the Seahawks at 6 p.m.

“We want to start a new winning streak,” Sumpter said. “This [win] was good and now we’re heading into region play on a good note. … We’re pretty confident. All the teams are pretty good in our region, and Wilson is going to be a tough team to start it against. If we come ready to play, we should take the ‘W’ ”

Said Dennison: “They’ve got a little confidence, but we just want to keep it low key and not get a big head. We want to just take it one game at a time.”

This story was originally published January 8, 2016 at 11:13 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach girls use defense to overcome Goose Creek."