Late mistakes costly for Myrtle Beach in Class AAA state final

Against the majority of its opponents this year, the Myrtle Beach girls basketball team could get away with sloppy play during extended stretches.

The Seahawks’ overall talent level and the ability of multiple players to take over at any given time usually far outweighed any negatives. Most of those opponents, however, weren’t Dreher.

Myrtle Beach fell 45-41 to the No. 1 team in the state in the Class AAA championship on Saturday at the Colonial Life Arena in Columbia after an ugly first half and then – following a significant run to tie the game with two minutes to go – a pair of miscues in the waning moments.

“Tonight was [about] turnovers,” Seahawks junior forward Nia Sumpter said. “We’ve been talking about turnovers all year. This is the 30th game and we still had 16. That’s way too many to beat that team.”

Myrtle Beach, which trailed by 10 points at the beginning of the fourth quarter and as many as 13 points in the second half, played its best ball of the evening in the final period. Janell Horton’s 3-pointer helped spark a 12-0 Seahawks run that also included four points from Sumpter. The scored was tied 41-41 following Keocia Walker’s pass into the lane led to Kiana Adderton’s game-tying bucket.

Sumpter then blocked a shot on the other end of the court, and Myrtle Beach’s intent was to hold the ball for the final shot. Instead, Dreher’s Kamryn Lemon stole a pass and went the distance for the go-ahead lay-up. Another Seahawk turnover less than 10 seconds later led to another Lemon bucket and the final score of the evening.

“We knew what time it was and made big plays,” Lemon said.

Dreher also did plenty of the early, as well.

A seven-minute stretch in the first half appeared all but catastrophic for the Seahawks. After Myrtle Beach took a 9-7 lead on Kyerra Adderton’s free throws with under four minutes to go in the opening quarter, Dreher went on a 13-0 run, holding the Seahawks scoreless until Tatyanna Hollins’ 3-pointer near the midway point of the second.

In total, Myrtle Beach shot just 20 percent in the opening half, and the Blue Devils slightly extended their nine-point halftime lead in the third.

“Normally, yes, we are used to getting that lead and keeping the lead,” Dreher coach Teresa Jones said after her team won its third title in five years. “But I told them and we emphasized the fact that every good team is going to make a run. Myrtle Beach was a good team. They wanted it just as bad as we did. … They made some adjustments and came out firing.”

Said Sumpter: “That’s how we should have been playing the whole game. I don’t know why we didn’t.”

The result was a loss in the last game of season.

Sumpter led Myrtle Beach with 11 points and 12 rebounds, her 18th double-double of the year. She also played a crucial role in holding North Carolina commitment Jhileiya Dunlap to 12 points and four rebounds, both well below her season averages.

However, Dreher’s Jaelynn Murray had 10 points and 12 rebounds and Lemon had 14 points, including the four crucial ones late.

Myrtle Beach won its eighth region championship in the last decade, continued its streak of years with at least one playoff victory well into its second decade and placed a player on the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association Class AAA All-State team for the 11th consecutive year. Sumpter, that all-state pick, was named the Region VII-AAA Player of the Year, while Jennifer Dennison earned Coach of the Year honors and Adderton was a first-team all-region selection.

Throughout the first four rounds of the playoffs, the Seahawks exerted much of that talent. They beat Lakewood and Stall by double digits in the opening two rounds, won a narrow third-round game over Crestwood, a team ranked higher in the S.C. Basketball Coaches Association (SCBCA) polls, and then defeated Wilson last Friday in the Lower State finals in Florence.

Dennison said the team falling short of the ultimate goal didn’t diminish everything else it had accomplished. Nor did it take away from a team rallying around its coach during her absence in the fall due to extended health problems.

“It meant a lot, especially when I was out,” Dennison said. “The girls were there for me. This is a great group of girls.”

This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 9:32 PM with the headline "Late mistakes costly for Myrtle Beach in Class AAA state final."