Late flurry pushes Marion past Waccamaw

Consistency over 32 minutes of game time on the hardwood is needed to leave with the desired result – a victory.

Unfortunately for Waccamaw on Thursday night, it fell just short of its goal, suffering a hard-fought defeat at the hand of region rival Marion, 42-41.

“At the end, some calls didn’t go our way,” said head basketball coach Mike Quinn. “But it was a hard-fought game that could have went either way. We lost to a good team, a solid one that is very strong.”

Doubling the output of their opponents in the third period, the Warriors found themselves with a 33-27 lead heading into the final quarter.

“Defensively, we went into another gear,” Quinn said. “Most importantly, we were able to kind of limit their leading scorer (Dahndray) Foxworth.”

Indeed, Waccamaw limited Foxworth. However, his supporting cast did its part to lift the Swamp Foxes, outscoring the Warriors 15-8 in the fourth –just enough to walk away with a victory.

JaQuan Felton led all scorers with 19 points on the night, followed by Yamasi Buey with seven of his own.

Leading the way for Waccamaw was Kenley Vereen with 15 points, and Jawan Bryant with 12.

The loss drops Waccamaw to 9-12 overall, and 3-4 in Region VIII-AA play. Despite the loss, Quinn sees a silver lining about the game, knowing his team will see teams with similar qualities come playoff time.

“They are similar to what we will see in the next few weeks,” he said. “But we still have some of our goals in front of us, and that is working in an effort to possibly earn a home playoff game.”

This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 10:52 PM with the headline "Late flurry pushes Marion past Waccamaw."