North Myrtle Beach boys overcome slow start to beat rival Myrtle Beach, claim Region VII-AAA title

Cameron Koehler’s night just kept getting better.

After North Myrtle Beach overcame a two-point first quarter to make a game of its contest with Myrtle Beach, the Chiefs coach then got to celebrate a 67-60 victory over the Seahawks, his first in four tries against the school’s biggest rival.

More than 25 minutes later, with the second-year coach sitting on the front row of the bleachers in a near-empty gym, that’s when the best news of the evening came.

Georgetown, the last-place team in Region VII-AAA, pulled off an upset of Wilson, giving Koehler’s team sole possession of first place and a No. 1 overall seed for the playoffs.

“For the way we started the season, there were so many [problems]. It could have gone any way possible,” Koehler said. “Later in the season, you could see the guys start to get better, fill their roles.”

Against Myrtle Beach, the roles his players filled were prevalent. The Chiefs, after trailing 10-2 at the end of the first quarter, started shoring up some defensive woes and getting better looks at the basket.

Josh Livingston again led the team in scoring with 17 points, including seven in the final quarter. Xavier Clarida scored all eight of his in the fourth. And where so much of the difference in the game was decided was the free-throw line.

Referees called a total of 56 fouls, and as a result, the teams shot 63 total free throws. Neither team was stellar there; Myrtle Beach was 14-of-25, while the Chiefs were 21-of-38. But where quality may have suffered, quantity won out. The game’s final margin was the exact difference in made free throws.

What all those whistles may have also done was slow down the Seahawks’ early momentum just long enough to let North Myrtle Beach reverse its fortune.

“The free throws got us back in the game,” said Livingston, who added that he was surprised by the overall meaning of the victory after the region’s final standings were completed. “The odds were against us. Wilson had to lose to Georgetown and we had a tough, tough Myrtle Beach team.”

The Seahawks were certainly the hottest team in the region coming into Thursday. Craig Martin’s squad had won six straight, a run that helped force a four-way tie for first place as recently as the end of last week.

However, while it was already known that Wilson, North Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach and St. James were heading to the playoffs, the final positioning wasn’t laid out until after Thursday’s three region games. The three-way tie for second place - between Wilson, Myrtle Beach and St. James - required a secondary tie-breaker utilizing defensive points allowed. Wilson earned the region’s second home playoff game, with Myrtle Beach and St. James hitting the road on Tuesday.

The Chiefs were able to avoid all that with the win over the Seahawks, not to mention just a bit of luck down in Georgetown. Should North Myrtle Beach continue to win in the postseason, it is guaranteed three home games. The totality of the information Koehler was absorbing added to the number of teeth peering through his smile after an already exciting end to the regular season.

“I’m not saying anybody else doesn’t do the things we do,” he said. “But it’s fun.”

This story was originally published February 12, 2016 at 12:02 AM with the headline "North Myrtle Beach boys overcome slow start to beat rival Myrtle Beach, claim Region VII-AAA title."