North Myrtle Beach girls overwhelm Lake City

North Myrtle Beach is acknowledging the fact that it won’t win a region title.

That doesn’t mean the Chiefs girls basketball team doesn’t have intentions of earning a playoff berth next month. If the latter is going to happen, wins like Tuesday’s over Lake City are absolutely crucial to that secondary, more realistic goal.

“We looked at this as a must-win game because where we’re at in the region, we need to win these to stay in the top four,” forward Aquera Johnson said after North Myrtle Beach’s 52-32 victory at home.

The win moved Johnson and her teammates to sole possession of fourth place in Region VII-AAA, which means if the season ended today the Chiefs would be postseason bound. It may not sound like much with two-thirds of Class AAA getting playoff berths, but getting to the playoffs is an across-the-board priority.

Against the Panthers, North Myrtle Beach certainly distanced itself from the bottom of the division. Lake City (5-10 overall) fell to 0-5 inside the region, and the biggest struggle has obviously been a lack of offensive production. Lake City scored just 13 points against against Myrtle Beach and 14 against St. James during the opening two weeks of region play.

That was evident against North Myrtle Beach, as well. Johnson said North Myrtle Beach focused on getting a quick start to the game knowing Lake City’s offense had struggled. The strategy worked. The Panthers had two points at the end of the first quarter. They finished with 12 at halftime, but eight of those came in a three-minute span with most of the Chiefs’ starters on the bench.

“We wanted to get out in front a little earlier and not let them hang around,” coach Jude Hunt said. “When you’re not used to winning a lot of games – we have have not won a lot this year – we weren’t quite sure how to handle ourselves. Not that we did a terrible job, but we got up and never really put it away.”

Then again, North Myrtle Beach was never really threatened much. The Chiefs ended any threat of a comeback with a 10-0 run to start the second half and then another sizable advantage to start the fourth quarter.

Johnson’s game-high 20 points and another 10 from center Julie Carini nearly eclipsed the Panthers’ total.

North Myrtle Beach is now a half game ahead of Georgetown (1-3) in the region. They’ll also have an opportunity to make up some ground on St. James on Friday when the Sharks (4-1) come to Little River. Stan Patterson’s team won the first matchup of the season between the two squads 39-37 on Jan. 11.

Defeating St. James this time around would be a difference maker. And if not, keeping the status quo against Lake City and Georgetown will also do the trick.

“We want to be in playoff contention in the end. Beating out those two teams would be a big part of that,” Hunt said. “We obviously have to go back to their places … which are notoriously not easy places to go to and win. We’ve got to find wins over there.”

This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 9:44 PM with the headline "North Myrtle Beach girls overwhelm Lake City."