‘It was just a big night.’ South Pointe girls one win away from state title game

South Pointe girls’ basketball coach Stephanie Butler was intense during the Stallions’ third round playoff game Tuesday night, smashing her heels on the floor, slapping her hands together, spending half the game inside the lines of the court. For Butler, the usual.

So after her Stallions polished off Ridge View 58-24 to advance to the 4A Upper State championship game for the first time since 2007-08, she celebrated as hard, taking photos with any and every one, including South Pointe standouts Scarlett Gilmore and Jamia Blake. Gilmore, a senior, and Blake, a junior, became the school’s first girls’ basketball players to top 1,000 career points during the game.

“They worked so hard all year, to get to Greenville,” said Butler. “It was just a big night.”

Ridge View succumbed to an avalanche of turnovers late in the first quarter and all of the second. A couple quick takeaways by the Stallions helped them even the score at 10 before the end of the quarter.

And South Pointe’s surge — fueled in part by sticky full court defensive pressure — continued into the second. Blake hit a corner jumper, then two free throws before Gilmore swished a pair of freebies and Randi Neal scored off a steal. The hosts outscored Ridge View 19-5 in the second frame, before allowing the Blazers just four points in the third period.

By that time, South Pointe was cruising. Gilmore finished a steal with a left-handed layup that gave her 1,001 career points, the first Stallion girl to hit that mark in the school’s history.

“I probably started to get a little sentimental about a month ago with Scarlett,” said Butler. “She’s a kid that you can’t replace because she does everything you ask her to do. She’s been easy to coach.”

And Blake, who led all scorers with 18 points, joined Gilmore in the exclusive club with a baseline drive for two points late in the contest.

“It was a great moment to share with my sister,” Blake said, while standing next to Gilmore after the game.

The win sets up a rematch against Westwood, which beat Lower Richland. South Pointe won the first meeting against its Region 3-4A rival, before falling in the second game in early February. Butler’s team led in the second half, before a 14-2 Redhawks run spanning the third and fourth quarters helped them move past Butler’s team for an 18-point win. The margin of victory tipped the tiebreaker for the region championship in Westwood’s favor too.

Blake said she and her teammates will focus on “playing together and getting back. They got a lot of transition points on us. We’re gonna have to get back and talk more on defense.”

South Pointe reached the fourth round of the 4A state playoffs in 2007-08 under former coach Brett Childers. The Stallions lost to Dorman at Clemson’s Littlejohn Coliseum.

“We just need to calm down when it’s game time so we don’t get too excited,” said Gilmore.

“It’s a history moment for South Pointe,” said Blake. “We really want to pull this out.”

This story was originally published February 18, 2019 at 8:44 PM.