At long last! Clover girls win program’s first state championship in thrilling finish
After a long year of soaking in a painful 2020 state championship loss, the Blue Eagles are — at long last — state champions.
The Clover girls basketball team (18-1) won its first state championship in front of an electric crowd in the USC Aiken Convocation Center on Saturday afternoon.
Aylesha Wade hit a transition bucket with about 10 seconds left to give the Blue Eagles a 40-38 victory. The ball ended in the senior’s hands, and she collapsed to the floor in emotion when the buzzer sounded.
“After trailing the entire game, we just kept fighting, kept pushing,” Wade told The Herald, a state championship medallion around her neck and a big smile on her face. “This is my last year, so it meant a whole lot to me. So it was important that, you know, we finished it off.”
She then turned around and pointed to the Clover crowd: “And we had all of them to back us up. It’s great, man. It’s like a dream come true.”
Saturday marked Clover’s fifth all-time state championship appearance (1934-35; 1999-2000; 2004-05; 2019-20; 2020-21) — including its second in as many years and its fourth under Clover High alum and longtime head coach Sherer Hopkins.
“It was certainly worth the wait,” Hopkins told The Herald.
Sumter (13-4) was going for its second state championship.
What happened?
Sumter was the younger team, but the group was ready Saturday afternoon.
The Gamecocks jumped out to a 10-1 lead and didn’t allow a Clover field goal until near the two-minute mark of the first quarter. At the end of the first half, Sumter guard Kiara Croskey led all scorers with nine points — and her team, by virtue of an aggressive halfcourt press that appeared to stifle Clover’s guards, caused nine first-half Clover turnovers.
In the second half, the lead ballooned even more: The Gamecocks in the third quarter went on a 9-0 run — and led by as many as 12 points at one point — by relying on their talented guards and a frontcourt that, for perhaps the first time all season, truly tested Clover’s.
Even through most of the fourth quarter, Sumter kept Clover at bay: With 4:32 remaining, Sumter was up, 33-23. A Sumter win and a Clover loss felt inevitable.
But then Clover’s championship will — one that had been brewing since its 2020 5A state championship defeat over a year ago — gave the Blue Eagles one last push for the title.
The Blue Eagles, slowly and steadily, strung together a few runs. Five unanswered points from forward La’Destiny Worthy here; a steal and coast-to-coast finish from Janelle Carter there. And then, with 2:39 remaining, Clover’s 5A S.C. player of the year, Wade, hit her first three of the game to draw the game to two, 33-31.
Then came a whirlwind of a finish: Clover notched its first lead of the game with 2:20 remaining after a Carter steal and a Carter and-one layup she finished off with a free throw. 34-33, Clover up.
“I was just like, ‘I ain’t losing today, so I’m going and just putting it all out there,’ ” Carter told The Herald postgame with a smile. When asked if she felt any pressure at the free-throw line, she shook her head: “I just shoot them,” she said with a shrug, “cuz they’re free.”
Then, after a single made Sumter free throw and two buckets for each team, Sumter had the ball with 39.4 seconds left for a chance to win with the score tied at 38. But on that possession, Wade somehow collected a loose ball and pulled up in transition for a 15-foot jumper with about 10 seconds left in the game.
“It hung around the rim and it fell in,” Wade said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
After Wade’s bucket, Sumter pushed the ball downcourt. It got a decent look at the basket but missed it. Clover rebounded and made an outlet pass to Wade and the senior dribbled the clock out for the final margin.
The end of a hard-fought game, the end of year-long wait and the beginning of a new era with the Blue Eagles with a state championship under their belt — it all happened all at once and without warning.
“Again, I’m still just kind of in shock,” Hopkins said. “I’m just so happy for us and for our community, who — you saw — all came out to support us. Again, no words.”
How Clover got here
Clover’s path to Saturday didn’t surprise anyone. The Blue Eagles were the preseason No. 1 team in the state, according to the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association. And they deserved to be, considering they fell four points short of a state title last season and they returned a lot of key pieces to this year’s squad.
Clover didn’t bend under any lofty expectations. The team didn’t lose in its Region 3-5A schedule en route to a second straight region championship. In fact, it only lost once — and it required a 44-point effort from Power 5-bound guard Milaysia Fulwiley of Keenan High in a midseason basketball showcase for it to happen.
It also proved resilient when it needed to. Clover weathered two COVID conflicts — once in mid-January, when the team didn’t play a game for 19 consecutive days, and once right before Saturday’s championship game — with admirable discipline.
And on Saturday, that discipline delivered history.
Who were Saturday’s statistical leaders?
Several Clover players proved pivotal in Saturday’s state championship win.
▪ Janelle Carter led all Blue Eagle scorers with 13 points, which included an and-one layup and free throw that gave Clover’s first lead of the game with less than three minutes left in the fourth quarter. (It’s worth mentioning that Clover only led for 1:02 cumulative minutes of Saturday’s contest; Sumter led for 28:27.) The starting forward, who was tasked with guarding Sumter’s explosive backcourt for most of the game, also notched eight rebounds, two assists and three steals.
▪ Senior Aylesha Wade, a UNC Charlotte signee, notched 12 points (including the two that came from the game-winning bucket) and three rebounds and two assists on Saturday. She only went 1-of-8 from three — but the one she made, which came in the fourth quarter, proved vital to Clover’s final comeback.
▪ La’Destiny Worthy scored 11 points and notched nine rebounds, including a team-high two 3-pointers. Worthy was a valuable bright spot during the Blue Eagles’ first-half offensive struggles.
▪ Taylor Thomas, who eventually fouled out, led the team in rebounds with 10 and notched two points. Lauren Deal also added two points and dove for loose balls multiple times in Saturday’s contest.
▪ Tegan Bertwell, who proved huge in Clover’s win in the Upper State title game earlier this month, notched a block in 14 minutes of play.
Sumter was led by Kiara Croskey, who scored 12 points; Layken Cox, who scored seven; and Keziyah Sanders, who finished with six.
This story was originally published March 20, 2021 at 2:29 PM.
.jpeg)