Rock Hill girls, Northwestern boys playing for holiday hoop titles

The Rock Hill girls and Northwestern boys will be playing for tournament titles Friday.

The second day of play in the Y.C. Winborn and Lindberg Moody Holiday basketball tournaments unfolded Thursday at Rock Hill and Northwestern High Schools.

At the Winborn Tournament, the Rock Hill girls moved into the finals with a 51-38 win over A.C. Flora.

Rock Hill took a 27-17 lead at halftime and went on to pick up the win.

RiKoya Anderson led Rock Hill with game-high 27 points. Jasona Ballard added 12 points to the winning effort for the two-time defending tourney champions.

Jordan Strange was the top scorer for A.C. Flora with 20 points.

Other winners in the girls bracket on the second day of play were Sun Valley, Marvin Ridge, and Butler.

At the Moody tournament, the Northwestern Trojans made it to the finals with a 67-59 win over Hopewell.

Northwestern led 32-25 at halftime, and although the Trojans never trailed in the second half, they had to fend many Hopewell charges.

They led 43-33 after three periods, but Hopewell cut the deficit to three points in the final two minutes.

Northwestern responded down the stretch with an eight-for-eight performance at the charity stripe. Six of them came from Myliek Durham, who led Northwestern in scoring with 31 points. Ali Shockley added 10 points to the winning cause for Northwestern.

Mack Sherrill was the leading scorer for Hopewell with 19 points.

North Mecklenburg, Fairfield Central and Waccamaw also won games on Thursday.

In the boys’ division of the Winborn tournament, Rock Hill moved to the 5th place game with a 50-38 win over Chapin.

Rock Hill led all the way, but did not break it open until the second half.

Rock Hill led 25-18 at the intermission, before the Bearcats’ defense picked it up in the second half. That was the difference in the game. The Bearcats allowed Chapin only five points in the third quarter.

Antonio Barber led the way for Rock Hill with 20 points. He got help from Byron Fletcher, who scored seven, and Lance Crayton and Myles Byers, both of whom had six. Logan Budzinski led Chapin with 17 points.

“We played much better today on defense,” said Rock Hill head coach Eric Rollings. “That was the key for us today as we got a lot of baskets from transition.”

He also praised Barber’s offensive effort.

“He really played well on offense today for us,” said Rollings. “He does a good job driving to the basket.”

Lancaster made its way to the fifth-place contest with a 66-59 victory over Orangeburg-Wilkinson.

Lancaster led 30-26 at halftime. The Bruins broke it open in the third period and led 53-39 when it was over, and then held off an Orangeburg-Wilkinson comeback attempt in the final period.

Jalen Canty was the top scorer for Lancaster with 16 points. Nehemiah McGriff added 15 points, and Desmond Ricks chipped in 13 points in the big win. Justin Brown led Orangeburg-Wilkinson with 12.

Butler, the two-time defending champion, also won on Thursday. The contest between York and Hunter Huss was in progress at press time.

This story was originally published December 22, 2016 at 9:53 PM with the headline "Rock Hill girls, Northwestern boys playing for holiday hoop titles."