Collier, Carolina Forest boys make plays down stretch to top rival Conway

Richmond Collier put his stamp all over his first varsity game against Conway.

The Carolina Forest point guard’s 18 points and some key decision making down the stretch helped the Panthers win 53-42 and stay tied for the Region VI-AAAA lead. Considering just two weeks ago that all eyes were on the Tigers, and coach Brian Brunson’s hard-charging squad took advantage of a crucial home game against its top rival.

“To get a win against that team, this point of the year, this is a grind,” Brunson said. “We played a terrible third quarter. They bounced back and found a way to win in the fourth quarter. That’s big for us, especially with an inexperienced team.”

After Collier’s nine-point second quarter spurred a six-point halftime lead, Carolina Forest was unable to stop Conway’s primary push in the third quarter. The Tigers, behind Juwan Moody – who scored all of his points that frame – raced to a one-point advantage.

That’s when Collier and his teammates took over for good. Defensively, the Panthers held Conway to just two fourth-quarter points, a far cry from the 20-point third the Tigers had.

“I don’t know if we ran out of gas. We didn’t put the ball in the basket at times when we needed to,” Conway coach Mike Hopkins said. “We’ve got to figure out how to get over those rough bumps. Maybe it was a situation where a guy got tired. I’m not going to offer any excuses for that. As a coach, maybe I have to find a solution for that. … We expended a lot of energy in the third.”

The Tigers, ranked as high as No. 5 in Class AAAA earlier this month, fell to 1-3 in the region and must find a way to rebound during what could be the toughest stretch of division play. Hopkins’ team plays two of its next three on the road, and anything less than two wins in that span could be cause for serious concern as far as the playoffs.

Meanwhile, Carolina Forest’s multi-faceted squad is looking better by the week. Aside from Collier, Carolina Forest got 12 points from fellow first-year varsity player Damon McDowell and 10 from Duane Moss. Those three players combined for seven 3-pointers, and they accounted for 10 of the team’s fourth-quarter points.

The win improved the Panthers to 11-5 overall and 3-1 in the region, helping them keep pace with Sumter.

“I thought Richmond played unbelievable,” Brunson said of the much-improved junior. “Could he play better? Yes. There were times when the whole team was out of control. There were times when we didn’t have leadership on the floor. There were some times when we failed to play defense and we lost a 12-point lead. It created a scenario that didn’t need to be created.”

In the end, Carolina Forest made up for those lapses and earned another big victory.

“It means a lot to the team. It means a lot to our community,” Collier said, indicating the larger-than-normal crowd. “We’re not worrying about what’s in the crowd. We’re worrying about what’s happening on the court. We’re playing our game.”

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 10:22 PM with the headline "Collier, Carolina Forest boys make plays down stretch to top rival Conway."