Falcons tied with Fort Mill for Region III lead

With two weeks left in the regular season, the Nation Ford boys’ basketball team is tied for the Region III lead with rival Fort Mill.

Both teams are sporting 7-1 region records and will meet up again, potentially for the region title Feb. 12 at Fort Mill High. However, Falcons’ head coach Michael Tew said he isn’t looking that far ahead.

“We are still taking it one at a time,” Tew said.

Nation Ford beat rival Fort Mill earlier in the week and then dropped Rock Hill pretty handily 65-41 Friday. The Falcons were led by Will Lawhon, who scored 17 points, while Ben Tuipulotu and Zeb Graham each dropped in 13 points. Terry Galloway added 11 points for Nation Ford.

The Falcons shot well at times, but were also very selective. For the game, Nation Ford hit 22 of 54 shots, shooting over 50 percent in the fourth quarter.

“It was a weird feeling,” Tew said. “Sometimes we had to work hard to get good looks. Other times it was easy. Defensively I think we played well. A lot of our younger kids are starting to help us.”

After a close first quarter, Nation Ford started pulling away in the second and outscored Rock Hill 20-9. The Falcons opened the third quarter on a 5-0 run, while the Bearcats missed their first five shots.

Nation Ford hit eight 3-pointers in the game and opened the fourth quarter on a 7-4 run, while managing the clock well enough to limit Rock Hill’s number of possessions.

Girls .500 in Region III

On the girls’ side of things, the Falcons fell to Rock Hill 71-35 and are now 4-4 in region games. Nation Ford was led by Ellona Moulds, who scored 11 points.

Nation Ford was able to stick with Rock Hill in the first quarter and tied the game at 12 before Rock Hill ended the first quarter on a 4-0 run. Once the second quarter rolled around, things went bad for Nation Ford as the Falcons went 0-6 from the field and scored just five points.

Rock Hill came out of halftime with a 41-17 lead and opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run. Nation Ford played better in the third quarter, and Moulds scored seven of her 11 points in the quarter.

The Falcons’ struggles continued in the fourth quarter as they hit just one of eight shots from the field.

Up next for Nation Ford are games at York and Northwestern. The last regular season home game for the Falcons is against Gaffney Feb. 9.

This story was originally published February 1, 2016 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Falcons tied with Fort Mill for Region III lead."