Darlington girls, boys lose at North Myrtle Beach
By Don Gearhart
NORTH MYRTLE BEACH — Both the Darlington girls and boys basketball teams made the long trip to North Myrtle Beach.
Unfortunately, the trip home must have seemed a lot longer.
The preliminary game between the Falcons and the Chiefs couldn’t have started any better for the DHS squad when they scored the opening bucket for a 2-0 lead; that was their only lead of the game.
Chiefs sharpshooter Riley Vincent lead a first-quarter surge that saw her tickle the nets for two long treys and two conventional jumpers for 10 of her team’s 16 first quarter points and a 16-7 lead at the first break.
Foul trouble put Vincent on the bench with 1:45 to play in the quarter and the entire second period. With Vincent out, Darlington was able to cut the lead to 18-19, but freshman Faith Farmer paced the Chiefs with six points and Darlington could not overcome the balanced scoring from the rest of the NMB squad and was behind 21-28 at the half.
The third period began with the Chiefs content to play for the open 3-point shots and not try to play in the paint where the Darlington height advantage would become a factor.
The game plan proved fruitful when Vincent put down three quick treys and Farmer added two of her own. The Darlington approach was the opposite, pushing the ball into their big center, Sommer Joseph, who dominated inside with a game-high 20 points.
Trading two point shots for three point shots did not pay off as the Chiefs built a commanding lead at the end of the third quarter, 63-30.
For most of the final period, NMB was content to bank on that lead and give the bench players an opportunity. The Falcons outscored the Chiefs 13-2 in that quarter but still fell short by a 65-43 margin. With the win, the Chiefs improved their record to 15-5 while the Falcons fell to 6-4.
Darlington 7 – 14 – 9 – 13 — 43
North Myrtle Beach 16 – 16 — 31 — 2 — 65
Darlington:
Sommer Joseph 20, JeMera Madison 15, Aryanna McPhail 5, Tamira Benton 3
North Myrtle Beach:
Riley Vincent 19, Faith Farmer 15, C.C. Hemingway 11, Adaiah Vereen 11, Ra’Naija Livingston 5, Jaden Berger 4
In the boys’ game, Darlington jumped out to an 8-2 lead with their fast-paced play, then stalled to allow NMB to crawl back in to take an 11-8 advantage after one period.
A 13-4 run put the Chiefs up by a dozen before the Falcons twice reduced the deficit to 5 points, and finally down by 7 at the halftime break, 28-21. That lead increased slightly by the end of the third period with the score 40-31 in favor of NMB.
The final margin of victory for the Chiefs remained at 9 by the time the clock ran out. The closest the Falcons could get was an 8-point margin.
The key to the Chiefs’ game plan was to work the ball and eventually get the ball inside to Jamie Brooks. Brooks led all scorers with 19 points, almost exclusively in the paint. Seven different NMB players recorded points for the game showing the overall balance in their offense.
Qua’liek Lewis led DHS with a dozen points and Dominic Cotton contributed 11.
Neither team was stellar from the free throw line with Darlington only connecting on 12 of 26 from the charity stripe. The Chiefs did not fare much better, only connecting on 10 of 21 free throws. NMB raised their record to 7-13 while DHS fell to 12-10 on the season.
Darlington 8 – 13 – 10 – 11 — 42
North Myrtle Beach 11 – 17 – 12 – 11 — 51
Darlington:
Qua’liek Lewis 12 , Dominic Cotton 11, Jayden Wingate 7, Emmanuel Pendergrass 5, Tyler Fleming 4, Nick Jordan 2, B.J. Issac 1
North Myrtle Beach:
Jamie Brooks 19, Cameron Locklear 7, Elijah Vereen 5, Kris Webb 5, Landon Cloninger 5, T.J. Stanley 5, Zach McHugo 3, K.J. Stanley 2