Even though the Mauldin Mavericks scored an imposing 55 points on Friday, the James F. Byrnes Rebels still came out on top. James F. Byrnes greeted the New Year with with a 71-55 victory over Mauldin. Given James F. Byrnes' advantage in MaxPreps' South Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 14th, while Mauldin is ranked 83rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Leading James F. Byrnes to victory were Colt Fowler and Evan Enos. Fowler scored 12 points along with seven assists, while Enos scored 22 points along with seven rebounds. That's the first time this season that Enos scored 15 or more points. The team also got some help courtesy of Kayzzin McDowell, who scored nine points along with three steals and three blocks.
Defeat or not, Mauldin got some senior leadership from Owen Stewart who scored 12 points along with three blocks and Braden Hershberger who scored 15 points. The matchup was Hershberger's third in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Jordan Sullivan, who scored nine points along with five rebounds.
James F. Byrnes is on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last ten games, which provided a nice bump to their 13-4 record this season. As for Mauldin, they now have a losing record at 7-8.
James F. Byrnes and Spartanburg will face off at 7:30 p.m. on January 9th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Spartanburg knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with flashy point totals in its past seven matchups -- so hopefully James F. Byrnes likes a good challenge. Mauldin is on the road again on Saturday and play against Clover at 2:30 p.m. on January 6th. Clover is coming into the game hot, having won their last four games.
