Rivalry notes: Northwestern’s playoff situation; Rock Hill shoots 4.7% from 3
By the end of Tuesday night, the Northwestern boys’ basketball team kept its playoff hopes alive, and the Rock Hill girls’ team managed to overcome poor shooting and stay in the region title chase.
But there’s still a lot to unpack.
Here are two notes worth considering heading into a consequential seven days of high school basketball.
1. Northwestern boys ‘not giving up’ on playoff technicality
The Trojans might have their playoff prospects spoiled by one controversial point.
Northwestern defeated Rock Hill at home, 68-60, on Tuesday night. The Trojans were led by lone senior AJ Thompson — who notched 21 points and scored the game’s final two buckets to put the Bearcats away for good — and Matthew White, who scored 13.
The win put the Trojans at 3-3 in the region with two games remaining. The win also let the Trojans keep pace with Blythewood, which is 3-2 in the region with three games remaining. Blythewood and Northwestern are currently in a proverbial foot race for the second spot in Region 4-5A — and the race is a consequential one, as the top two spots in the region go to the S.C. state playoffs.
If all goes like high school basketball fans expect it to the next two weeks — in other words, Northwestern wins its next two games, and Blythewood wins two of its next three — then Northwestern and Blythewood will both have records of 5-3 in Region 4-5A, and each team will have one win and one loss against each other.
Here’s where that aforementioned “one controversial point” comes in.
If Blythewood and Northwestern do, in fact, finish 5-3 in the region, the tiebreaker to decide who gets sent to the playoffs is based on point differential in head-to-head matchups, Northwestern coach John Bramlett told The Herald postgame Tuesday. (In other words, the team that won by more and lost by less would get a postseason bid.)
In the teams’ first matchup, Northwestern fell to Blythewood on the road, 65-60.
In the teams’ second matchup three days later, Northwestern defeated Blythewood, 68-64.
This means that Blythewood — if, again, both teams are 5-3 in the region come the end of next week — would have a one-point advantage in the tiebreaker for a playoff spot over Northwestern, and the Trojans would thus end their season without a playoff berth.
So what’s the issue?
The Trojans are arguing that the score in their win over Blythewood was incorrect.
“We scored the game,” Bramlett said. “We won by six instead of four.”
Bramlett claims that there was a score change made at halftime that was wrong: Blythewood, Bramlett said, was awarded two points it did not score. Bramlett didn’t make a big deal of it at the time, he said, because he was focused on winning a hard-fought region contest. But afterward, once he awoke to the troubles this head-to-head point differential tiebreaker might pose, he contacted the S.C. High School League, he said.
“I’ve contacted the National Federation of High Schools. We wrote a letter to the High School League today,” Bramlett told The Herald.
Bramlett is arguing that the score is correctable because every point scored from that game is caught on film. Bramlett has run into resistance from the League, he said, because the game had already been deemed “official” by the residing referees.
“I’m not giving up on it,” Bramlett said. “And again, we got to take care of us. Now we got to go and play (Rock Hill) over there on Friday, on senior night, and we’ll have another dog fight. It doesn’t matter what the records are when you play here.
“It’s a tough region. It’s a shame that only two teams can make it.”
The Rock Hill boys’ team has already been eliminated from playoff contention.
2. Rock Hill struggles from three, but wins anyway
Rock Hill girls’ coach Kenny Orr said he told his team at halftime to stop taking so many threes. They simply weren’t falling, he said.
So when the Bearcats emerged from the locker room and shot six straight 3-pointers to begin the second half? All Orr could do was sink in his chair, cross his legs and offer a disgruntled shrug.
The Bearcats defeated Northwestern on Tuesday night, 37-28. They went 1-of-21 from three (4.7%), according to stats compiled by the school, and 6-of-18 from the free throw line. These are two disappointing data points given how well the Bearcats played against Ridge View on Friday night.
“If we want to be one of the best teams in the state, or contend in certain situations, man, we gotta hit free throws,” Orr told The Herald postgame. “And we proved the other night that we could do that. And then we come out tonight and lay a goose egg? It’s frustrating.”
Rock Hill, despite not shooting well and scoring far below its season average in total points, hung on in the rivalry game by virtue of 16 points from junior guard Jada Jones and 11 points from sophomore guard Laila Hankerson.
Jones, the teams’ proverbial engine, appeared to have rolled her ankle late in the fourth quarter. She was able to walk off the court under her own power.
Orr credited Northwestern for a lot of his team’s shortcomings on Tuesday night, but his message to his team postgame was clear.
“We’re not a team that can just step on the court and we’re going to win,” he said. “We gotta do the little things. And tonight, we didn’t do enough of those.”
Rock Hill plays Northwestern at home on Friday night.
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
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