Bond, Irmo outshoot Carolina Forest third-round game

Irmo guard Tavonne Bond celebrated his 18th birthday in grand style.

The senior scored 23 points on 9-of-10 shooting to guide the Yellow Jackets to a 61-45 victory over Carolina Forest Tuesday night and a spot in the Class AAAA Lower State championship on Saturday. Irmo is in the state semifinals for the fourth time in the last six years and will face West Ashley Saturday night at the Florence Civic Center.

Bond was 5-of-6 on 3-pointers against the Panthers and is 11-of-14 from long range his last two games.

“I really felt it in warmups,” Bond said. “I was making a lot of shots and my confidence was really high so my teammates just got me the ball in good spots.”

It was hot shooting that gave Irmo (23-4) the lead and then when Carolina Forest (18-8) made a run in the third quarter, the Yellow Jackets answered with a defensive stop and a 15-0 run that put the game away.

The Yellow Jackets were 10-of-18 from the field in the first half with four 3-pointers, two by Bond and one each from Dre’Von Sweat and Noah Jenkins. That helped build a 24-16 halftime lead. All four of the Panthers first-half field goals were 3-pointers but they couldn’t find any offense inside the arc.

“Our shooting in the first half is what got us the lead and got us going,” Irmo coach Tim Whipple said. “We were having trouble with any penetration but we made enough 3 to get us the lead then we just played a really, really good third quarter.”

Irmo came out of the locker room with a 9-2 run to build the lead to 15 points before the Panthers responded with a 10-3 run highlighted with three points each from Richmond Collier and Matthew Weatherwax.

They had a chance to get within 36-30 but Jaylon Wilson drew a charge under the basket that sparked a 15-0 run by the Yellow Jackets.

“We have talked so much about taking charges this year and we don’t but when we do, we get pretty excited,” Whipple joked. “That might have had something to do with it.”

Carolina Forest coach Brian Brunson thought that sequence of plays turned out to be huge. Jenkins started the run with a 3, Bond hit another, Tony Brice added a basket before Bond hit a three from just inside the half court line to end the quarter. That gave Irmo a 44-28 lead going into the final eight minutes.

“I thought when we made a run late in the third quarter we could get it to a manageable situation but then we had an offensive foul and they hit a three, we have back-to-back turnovers and you can’t do that at this level,” Brunson said. “It was bang-bang play.”

Irmo has won 20-of-21 games after starting the season 3-3. Jenkins supported Bond with 14 points and RJ Gunn added 9 with Sweat chipping in eight.

The Yellow Jackets shot 25-of-46 from the field and 9-of-20 from three-point range. In the past two games, they’re 22-of-44 from beyond the arc.

“They shot the ball really well and they were timely 3s too,” Brunson said. “We had some foul trouble and we had too many turnovers against a very disciplined team. That’s a Tim Whipple team. They’re going to run their stuff and are very athletic and skilled.

“We had a heck of a year. We had to overcome some tough circumstances and adversity but the good thing is I have a bunch of them coming back next year.”

This story was originally published February 23, 2016 at 10:23 PM with the headline "Bond, Irmo outshoot Carolina Forest third-round game."