With four double-digit wins, the
Spring Valley (Columbia) girls basketball team captured the Crescent Bank Holiday Invitational, the girls equivalent to the Beach Ball Classic.
Led by
Asia Dozier's 17 points in the finals, the Vikings, ranked fifth in
MaxPreps' Xcellent 25 girls basketball national poll, beat Troy (Calif.) 53-42. Also in that game,
Xylina McDaniel, daughter of former NBA player Xavier McDaniel, finished with 14 points and nine rebounds.
This was the first time in nine years that a team from South Carolina won the event and it avenged last season's 58-53 loss in the tournament's final.
"Since the beginning of the season, we have a chant that says ‘One team, two goals,'" Spring Valley coach Anne Long told the Myrtle Beach Sun News. "The first goal was to win this tournament, and the second goal is to win the state tournament. Winning a tournament like this prepares you really well for the state."
Long knows a lot about winning the tournament, as it was her Dutch Fork team that won the event nine years ago.
FRESHMAN LEADS GAFFNEY TO TITLENot much has changed for the
Gaffney Indians this season, even though the Indians' boys basketball team graduated the 4A Player of the Year from its state championship team. Other players are stepping up and filling the scoring void.
In the finals of the Upward Classic, held at Dorman High School in Spartanburg, it was a freshman who hit big shots.
L.j. Peake hit a 3-pointer to send the game into overtime and then he tapped in a shot at the buzzer of overtime to defeat Irmo 83-82. He finished with 22 points while teammate
Quinshad Davis scored 27. The tournament victory continued a big season for coach Mark Huff, who won his 400th career game earlier in the season.
COURT NAMED AFTER JAMESONThe hardwood at
Abbeville High School has a new name.
The school recently named it "Robert Jameson Court," in honor of the former coach who won 366 of his 518 games there.
The boys basketball coach was at the school for 23 years beginning in 1965 and also coached girls hoops, baseball, softball and was the athletic director.
"It's meaningful to have the court named after you," Jameson told the Greenwood Index Journal. "It's a great deal, a big honor. This doesn't happen to everybody."
Jason Gilmer is an award-winning writer who has covered football in South Carolina for more than a decade. He does a statewide high school football blog on GoUpstate.com. You can reach him at palmettofootballtalkblog@gmail.com.
