Lancaster’s Janyle Pittman is The Herald’s latest Player of the Week (Feb. 22)

Janyle Pittman of the Lancaster boys’ basketball team is The Herald’s latest winter sports Player of the Week.

The 6-foot-3 senior averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds to lead Lancaster to wins over Catawba Ridge, South Pointe and York last week: Pittman had 11 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a 52-50 win over South Pointe on Feb. 15. The next night, Pittman poured in 35 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and had five assists in a 71-57 victory at Catawba Ridge. He finished off the week with 18 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks in a 73-36 win over York on Feb. 19.

Pittman, a Mars Hill University commit, saw his senior season end when his team lost to Greenville, 62-56, on Monday.

There were 24,562 votes cast in this week’s poll. Pittman earned 41% of the vote; Taylor Thomas of Clover earned 38.47% of the vote; and Tydriez Coleman of Great Falls earned 7.2% of the vote.

Meet the finalists for this award below.

(Information below includes statistics through Feb. 20. Voting for the award opened on Monday, Feb. 22.)

Meet the award finalists

Makayla Adams, South Pointe girls’ basketball: The 5-foot-6 senior had 14 points, three assists and three steals to help the Stallions to a 55-52 win over Greer in the first round of the 4A state playoffs on Feb. 20. Adams is averaging 8.1 points per game for South Pointe this season.

Zy Brown, York boys’ basketball: The 6-foot junior had 22 points to lead York to a 67-42 win over Indian Land on Feb. 15. Brown averaged 16 points, four assists and four rebounds per game for the Cougars, who finished their season at 5-10.

Nadia Burns, Legion Collegiate girls’ basketball: The 5-foot-9 sophomore had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds to go with three assists and two blocks to lead the Lancers to a 53-50 win at Chesterfield on Feb. 17. She also had six points and 10 rebounds in a 29-23 win at Buford on Feb. 15. Burns averaged 11.4 points and 10.9 rebounds for Legion Collegiate in its 2020-21 season, which ended last week.

Tydriez Coleman, Great Falls boys’ basketball: The 6-foot-7 sophomore forward had 19 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks to lead Great Falls to a 68-49 win in the opening round of the 1A state playoffs on Feb. 19. Coleman is averaging 12.4 points and 9.3 rebounds per game for Great Falls, which is going for its second straight state championship this postseason.

MJ Collins, Westminster Catawba boys’ basketball: The 6-foot-4 junior had 24 points, seven rebounds and four assists to lead Westminster Catawba to a 91-56 win over Salem Baptist in the second round of the NCISAA 2A state playoffs on Feb. 18.

Grant Lovette, Catawba Ridge boys’ basketball: The 6-foot-1 sophomore shooting guard nearly doubled his season scoring average last week: Lovette had 25 points, three rebounds and two steals in a 71-57 loss to Lancaster on Feb. 16. Two nights later, he had 24 points, 10 rebounds and four steals in a 90-69 victory at Indian Land on Feb. 18. Lovette averaged 13.7 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game for Catawba Ridge, which finished its season 7-8.

Quan Peterson, South Pointe boys’ basketball: The 6-foot-1 junior is playing well right when the Stallions need him to: Peterson had 18 points, four rebounds and four assists in a 52-50 loss at Lancaster on Feb. 15. The next day, he had 12 points, three rebounds and four assists in only 16 minutes of action to help the Stallions to a 79-37 victory at Indian Land. Peterson then had 10 points, three rebounds and four assists in a 54-47 win over Greer in the first round of the 4A state playoffs on Feb. 20. Peterson is averaging 16.3 points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals per game for South Pointe this season.

Janyle Pittman, Lancaster boys’ basketball.

Taylor Thomas, Clover girls’ basketball: The 6-foot-3 senior had 14 points, eight rebounds, two assists and one block to lead the Blue Eagles to a 48-28 win at Fort Mill on Feb. 15. Thomas is averaging 7.7 points and 9.7 rebounds per contest for a Clover team that has won 12 straight games.

View full results

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Want to nominate?

Player of the week awards highlight high school players with outstanding performances. The goal is to recognize all athletes — both the most accomplished and the underrated or underappreciated players. If you want to suggest someone to be included in the ballot in future weeks, send an email to Jay Edwards at edwardswork23@gmail.com. Please include the athlete’s name, school, class and applicable game performance statistics. Coaches must be willing to verify information.

This story was originally published February 22, 2021 at 5:37 PM.

Alex Zietlow

The Herald

Alex Zietlow writes about sports and the ways in which they intersect with life in York, Chester and Lancaster counties for The Herald, where he has been an editor and reporter since August 2019. Zietlow has won nine S.C. Press Association awards in his career, including First Place finishes in Feature Writing, Sports Enterprise Writing and Education Beat Reporting. He also received two Top-10 awards in the 2021 APSE writing contest and was nominated for the 2022 U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Rising Star award for his coverage of the Winthrop men’s basketball team.