Fort Mill girls start season with tournament title

The Fort Mill Yellow Jackets won the second annual Fort Mill Invitational with a 56-22 win over Chester to start the season 3-0.

In the championship game against Chester, Fort Mill’s girls were led by Unique Burch and Wallace Cortazar, who each scored 10 points. Burch added five rebounds and five assists to go along with four steals. Cortazar had six rebounds. KK Patterson had nine points and eight rebounds for Fort Mill.

It was the second consecutive year that Fort Mill won its own tournament. Burch was named Tournament MVP and Patterson made All-Tournament team for the Jackets.

In the second game of the tournament, Fort Mill beat Covenant Day 41-19. Burch led with 10 points and six rebounds and Patterson had eight points and 10 rebounds. Annika Ford added nine points in the win.

The opening game of the tournament saw Fort Mill beat Buford 58-32 with Burch scoring 19 points and Cortazar adding 13. Ford scored 12 points in the win as the Jackets opened the game with a 22-4 run in the first quarter and only built momentum from there.

Boys split in Border Battle

The Fort Mill boys’ team played in the Border Battle at Marvin Ridge and split two games. After falling in overtime to host Marvin Ridge 63-54, the Jackets bounced back the second day of the tournament to beat Cuthbertson 49-46.

Against Marvin Ridge, Fort Mill struggled from the foul line in the fourth quarter, going 4-11 as Marvin Ridge tied the game at 52 hitting a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send it into overtime. In overtime, Fort Mill hit just one of eight shots and missed both free throw attempts, while Marvin Ridge hit its only field goal attempt, but went nine-for-nine from the foul line.

The Jackets were led by 18 points from Ryan Heriot and Carson Morton added 16 points as well for Fort Mill.

Against Cuthbertson, the Jackets made sure t there wouldn’t be a repeat of the Marvin Ridge game and again battled from behind in the second half, but this time for the win. Three Fort Mill players – Heriot, Lawrence Adams and Josh Amigo – all scored 10 points for the Jackets in the win. The Jackets’ defensive pressure in the second half caused several turnovers from Cuthbertson, which led to Fort Mill going ahead with the rally.

Both the boys’ and girls’ teams will get back into action this week at South Pointe and York before hosting their first home game Dec. 6 against South Pointe.

This story was originally published November 26, 2017 at 7:16 PM with the headline "Fort Mill girls start season with tournament title."