Myrtle Beach girls prove too much for North Myrtle Beach

The Myrtle Beach girls basketball team surprised coach Jennifer Dennison with their own rendition of “happy birthday” Friday.

The Seahawks didn’t surprise Dennison with their dominant play on the court, though.

Junior Nia Sumpter had a double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds to go along with six blocks, and sophomore Ivy Collins scored 20 as Myrtle Beach took down North Myrtle Beach 54-33 in a Region VII-AAA matchup.

“It was a great game,” Dennison said. “I’m glad the girls played better and I’m sure they got their confidence up and I was just trying to get all 13 of the girls on the roster into the game.”

The Seahawks were clicking very early on, going on a 16-3 run to open the game, and they entered the break leading by 20.

“It was very important,” Dennison said of taking an early lead. “We talked to them about confidence and just being disciplined and they listened.”

Myrtle Beach has been without spark plug point guard Keocia Walker, who is sidelined with an injury but is expected to be back soon. Walker was missing again Friday, but Collins stepped in and got the Seahawks going.

“I think we played as a team tonight,” Collins said. “Everyone was able to get in and we were just working well together.”

Dennison hopes to have Walker – who is averaging 3.9 assists per game, second-best on the Grand Strand – back for a Region VII-AAA contest with Georgetown on Tuesday. Walker has certainly been missed, but without her, the Seahawks have been able to get some much-needed experience for some younger guards.

“We can get our sophomore guards Ivy Collins, Jalah Horton and Janell Horton some time and we need to get them ready for next year anyway,” Dennison said.

Aquera Johnson had nine points, Shaquera Johnson scored eight, and Julie Carini added six for the Chiefs, who fell to 1-3 in region play.

“We have to learn to play with a little more heart. A couple of things go against us and we have to learn to rise up and answer it with something else,” North Myrtle Beach coach Jude Hunt said. “We’re not answering the call when other teams put something on us.”

The Chiefs will look to bounce back as they host Lake City on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in what Hunt calls an “important” game.

“We know Myrtle Beach was a good team coming in, so it wasn’t like we were overly shocked by the result,” Hunt said. “We were a little disappointed we weren’t more competitive than we were. Next week, hopefully we can be more competitive and have a chance to make some things happen in the region and mix some things up a bit.”

Following a loss to Wilson – ranked No. 3 in Class AAA – and a hard-fought win over St. James in which they were held scoreless for an entire quarter, the Seahawks are looking to stay on the winning track in Region VII-AAA. After a duel with Georgetown on Tuesday, Myrtle Beach will host Wilson on Friday in a much-anticipated rematch.

“It’s going to be a good game,” Sumpter said. “That’s all I’m going to say.”

Meanwhile, Friday’s win and birthday surprise was a way of saying “thank you” to Dennison for her hard work.

“We wanted to do something for her to tell her we appreciate her and everything she does,” Sumpter said of singing ‘happy birthday’ to Dennison. “She means a lot to us.”

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 10:43 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach girls prove too much for North Myrtle Beach."