Stallions are No. 1! South Pointe caps spectacular season with state championship
South Pointe High School’s improbable run ended with one last heroic effort.
This South Pointe team rose from a double-digit deficit Saturday in the USC-Aiken Convocation Center and did something no other team in program history had done before it: The Stallions defeated Hilton Head Island High School, 52-50 — delivering the program its first-ever state championship.
The Stallions (15-5) came back and only led three times all game — after the first points and twice in the last minute. But there was never a thought that the hole South Pointe dug was too deep to climb out of, South Pointe guard Quan Peterson said postgame.
“We’ve always been in this situation,” said Peterson, whose late-game free throw sealed the game. “So we already knew how to handle it. How to take the punches and come right back.”
Junior guard Waymond Jenerette, who scored the game’s first points and who wouldn’t let a late-game cramp keep him off the court for this game’s final moments, told The Herald postgame that he never expected to see a state championship.
“I never thought this day would happen, for real,” Jenerette said with a big smile. “We’re a football school, so I didn’t think this would ever happen. But it happened. We got the job done.”
What happened?
The game’s scoring began with a South Pointe fast-break bucket from Jenerette after a Peterson steal.
But Hilton Head took a hold of the first half from there, building as much as an 11-point lead by virtue of its size.
JJ Hicklin, South Pointe’s stretch power forward, picked up two early fouls in the first quarter. He was replaced by O’Mega Blake, who’d go on to score six straight points in his absence.
Hilton Head went on a big run in the second quarter — in part because of Hilton Head’s 6-foot-7, 225-pound forward Sam Summa’s 13 points and 10 rebounds in the first half — and entered the break up, 30-19.
But South Pointe wouldn’t fold: The undersized but more-athletic Stallions did what they’ve done all year — pressed and made opposing guards uncomfortable. That and the coming alive of Jenerette and a pair of Hicklin threes put the game in arm’s reach by the time the third quarter buzzer sounded — 40-36, Hilton Head still led.
The Stallions continued to play hard through the fourth, but it looked as if they were swimming against an unrelenting current. The game got to within two after a third Hicklin three, 43-41, but then Hilton Head extended its lead to two possessions once more.
Then everything changed with under a minute left: Peterson hit a floater from the free throw line to draw the game to two, and then the following defensive possession, Peterson picked his opposing guard’s pocket, rose up for a layup — and was bumped to the floor but not before his layup somehow found the net. Bucket. And-one. Made free throw. 50-49, South Pointe led.
One Hilton Head free throw and then two more Peterson free throws the next South Pointe possession put the game at 52-50 with 4.1 seconds left. Then a Hilton Head halfcourt heave was no good.
The Stallions stormed the court. Head coach Melvin Watson, in the aftershock of reaching the high school coaching profession’s pinnacle, fell to the ground in emotion. He was hugged by his assistants and family.
“These kids, they just work really hard,” Watson said, tears still in his eyes. “When you walk in the gym and see all these accolades on the wall, that was just something they always wanted to do. We felt like we had good enough teams to win, or a shot to win it, and to have these kids actually win it is huge.”
How South Pointe got here
The Stallions’ run to the state title game was a surprising one: South Pointe, generally a trove of athletic talent in Rock Hill and across South Carolina, wasn’t a preseason South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association Top-10 team. And with its 2019-20 record (11-12, 4-6 Region 3-4A), it had no reason to be.
But things appeared to fall into place this season. On its way to a share of the region title, South Pointe proved it could win close games, defeating Region 3-5A champion Gaffney by two in late December and region foe Lancaster by two in early February. The Stallions also proved resilient — not letting a two-week quarantine or a four-game stretch that saw three losses detract them from their final goal.
South Pointe coach Watson, a South Carolina Gamecock great who has been at the South Pointe helm since 2011, said that this team had “come a long way since the start of the season” in early February.
Its progress would be put on full display in its 4A state playoff run, which included a tough overtime win over AC Flora in the quarterfinals and an eight point win over Greenville in the semis.
And then, of course, the season culminated in a state title win on Saturday.
Game leaders
South Pointe saw impressive play from a bunch of players.
▪ Peterson led the team with 16 total points, one assist and five steals. When Hilton Head Island High looked in control of the game in the first half, Peterson was the player South Pointe looked to for offense. He went 8-of-9 from the free throw line for the game and shot 4-of-14 from the field.
▪ Hicklin added 11 points — including three clutch 3-pointers — despite battling foul trouble. He also hauled in five rebounds and a steal.
▪ Blake scored 10 points, including six straight in the first quarter. He also led the team in rebounds with seven. The senior forward will play football at USC next year.
▪ Jenerette scored nine and added four rebounds and an assist. He played a tied-for-team-high 30 minutes (same as Peterson), and his calming, poised presence was crucial for South Pointe, particularly amid its early-game struggles.
▪ Other scorers: Alex Archie scored two; Jakari Webb scored one (a clutch free throw after Blake was fouled and injured and had to walk off to the sidelines on his own power in the fourth quarter) and Jamar Willions scored three. Chris McCullough didn’t score but his leadership and facilitating ability (two assists) proved vital.
▪ For Hilton Head, Summa led with 18 points and Will McCracken added 10.
This story was originally published March 6, 2021 at 2:00 PM.
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