Livingston leads North Myrtle Beach boys past Lake City

When Josh Livingston reaches his scoring average of about 15 points per game, North Myrtle Beach has a chance to compete against the rest of the region.

When he reaches that mark in each half, the Chiefs’ chances improve that much more. When he does that and then a little bit of everything else, Cameron Koehler’s team can look downright dominant.

During Tuesday’s 64-48 win over Lake City at home, the 6-foot-7 forward spurred a dominant second half by having maybe his most complete game of the season. He dropped 30 points – split evenly before and after halftime – but he also rebounded well on both ends of the floor, blocked two shots and dished off a couple assists.

“I don’t feel like they’re asking me to do more [scoring]. I think they’re asking me to make more plays,” Livingston said. “It may not be scoring. [It may be] getting big rebounds, assists, drawing the defense to me so they can get an open shot.”

Livingston, who also averages better than six boards per game, used that trait to prevent many of Lake City’s would-be second-chance opportunities. The Panthers were getting shots off, but when they weren’t falling, there was Livingston around the rim. If he didn’t snag the rebound, one of his teammates did.

After halftime, when Lake City’s hot streak cooled off, the Chiefs used a 42-23 second-half scoring advantage to earn the double-digit win. The Panthers got 24 points from Tyrek Epps, but there wasn’t enough support to make up for what Livingston, Chris Johnson (10 points) and five others who scored accomplished.

The effort came at a convenient time.

“With kids like him and all the kids we’ve got, you don’t really have to put pressure on them at all,” Koehler said. “They know what’s at stake. They know they can’t mess around. The team that came in [Tuesday] was No. 2 in our region and we just knocked them off.”

Sure enough, the win over Lake City, coupled with St. James’ victory over first-place Wilson, virtually wrapped up what has been a dramatic first half of the region slate.

The Chiefs, St. James and Lake City are 3-2 in region play and are all one-half game back of division-leading Tigers (3-1). Myrtle Beach is one game back of the second-place teams at 2-3, and there’s little indication that there won’t be further movement during the final five games (Wilson and Georgetown also have to make up their postponed contest from last week).

Certainly nothing is settled, and like most seasons, the region title and the playoff berths will more than likely come down to the final night of the regular season.

“Since I’ve been here, this is the most evenly balanced region I’ve seen,” Koehler said. “Wilson’s got a lot of the talent and size the other teams don’t have. But top to bottom, it’s pretty even across the board. Any night you can win; any night you can lose.”

This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 10:30 PM with the headline "Livingston leads North Myrtle Beach boys past Lake City."