Fort Mill boys, girls split with Lancaster in last of the non-region basketball games

A quick start in the second half of their non-region game against Lancaster, allowed the Fort Mill boys’ basketball team to pull away for a 57-42 win.

After trailing 23-21 at halftime, Fort Mill opened the second half on an 8-2 run to start pulling away as Carson Morton hit two critical 3-pointers for the Jackets. Fort Mill was nearly perfect from the field in the third quarter, hitting eight of nine shots, most of them coming from layups and other high percentage shots. Michael Foti helped put some space between Fort Mill and Lancaster as he scored all six of his points in the quarter.

“We had better ball movement and executed better,” Fort Mill head coach Dwayne Hartsoe said.

The Jackets’ defense was just as good as they held Lancaster to just five shots from the field while outscoring the Bruins 20-10 in the third. Both Josh Amigo and Morton led Fort Mill with 15 points each in the non-region win.

Later in the week, Fort Mill was able to get a 41-40 win over Clover in a Region IV battle. The win put the Jackets at 13-7 overall and 5-1 in region play with two more region games on their schedule this week.

Girls: Fort Mill struggled after 1st quarter

In the Jackets’ game against Lancaster, things didn’t go as smooth for the girls’ squad as they lost 45-24. Fort Mill hit just eight shots from the field the entire game against the Bruins. The Jackets were led in scoring by KK Patterson.

Fort Mill started the game well, scoring 10 points in the opening quarter and trailed by six at the start of the second. From the second quarter onward, the Jackets struggled with the offense and were held to just 10 points in the second hal. They hit just one shot from the field in the third quarter as Lancaster started to pull away and led by 18 heading into the final quarter.

Against Clover, Fort Mill fell 39-25 and struggled to score for the second straight game. The loss dropped Fort Mill to 10-11 overall and 1-5 in region play. Fort Mill is also struggling with injuries as both Annika Ford and Unique Burch are out.

The Jackets head into the final week of the regular season facing Northwestern on the road before taking on rival Nation Ford at home Friday evening to close things out before the playoffs begin next week.

This story was originally published February 5, 2018 at 1:28 PM with the headline "Fort Mill boys, girls split with Lancaster in last of the non-region basketball games."