Gabe Tooper of Fort Mill basketball is The Herald’s high school Athlete of the Week

Gabe Tooper of the Fort Mill boys’ basketball team is The Herald’s Athlete of the Week.

The 6-foot-4 junior scored a career-high 29 points to go with eight rebounds and two assists to help Fort Mill to a 61-57 win over Indian Land on Jan. 4. The Yellow Jackets (12-4) are set next to play Boiling Springs on Friday night.

There were an astonishing 96,514 participants in this week’s poll. Tooper finished with 49% of the vote, and Zyan Hager of the Catawba Ridge boys’ basketball team finished with 46% of the vote.

Meet the finalists below.

Statistics and records below are up-to-date through Monday afternoon, when this article first appeared online.

Meet the finalists

Richard Black III, Westminster Catawba boys’ basketball. The 5-foot-11 senior had 37 points in a 73-67 loss to Gaston Christian on Jan. 4. He also had 15 points in a 52-50 loss to Southlake Christian on Jan. 7. Westminster Catawba is 9-10 overall this season.

Kory Davis, York Prep boys’ basketball. The 6-foot-1 senior scored 23 points to go with five rebounds, five assists and four steals to lead York Prep to an 89-28 win over Cheraw to remain unbeaten at 12-0 this season. (Davis was one of five Patriots in double figures in the victory.) Davis also had 13 points, six assists, three rebounds and two steals in a 67-62 win over Legacy Early Charter on Jan. 3.

Darby Grigg, Northwestern girls’ basketball. The 5-foot-7 junior averaged 17.3 points, 4.3 assists and six steals per game as Northwestern beat Lancaster, South Pointe and York this week. Her best performance came on Saturday: Grigg had 21 points, six assists and six steals in her team’s 53-50 win at South Pointe. (That win marked Northwestern’s first win over its city rival since 2015.) Grigg is averaging 16 points, five steals and three assists per game for Northwestern (8-4) this season.

Zyan Hager, Catawba Ridge boys’ basketball. The 6-foot sophomore doubled his season average with 20 points to lead Catawba Ridge to a 73-61 win at Belmont South Point on Jan. 5. Hager — who has scored in double figures in five straight games — is averaging 9.5 points per game for Catawba Ridge (15-2) this season.

Carrigan McCloud, Indian Land girls’ basketball. The 5-foot-10 junior showed her versatility with 13 points, nine rebounds, eight steals and five assists to lead Indian Land to a 41-15 win over West Mecklenburg on Jan. 6. She also had 22 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a 74-45 loss at Fort Mill on Jan. 4. McCloud is averaging 17.7 points, 7.9 rebounds and 3.3 steals for the Warriors (4-6) this season.

Dylan Rupert, Clover boys’ basketball. The 5-foot-9 senior had 24 points, five rebounds and five assists in a 54-47 win over South Pointe on Jan. 5. Rupert was 7-for-8 from the foul line in the victory. Clover is 11-6 this season.

Gabe Tooper, Fort Mill boys’ basketball.

Tanas Watkins, Andrew Jackson boys’ basketball. The 6-foot-5 senior had back-to-back double-doubles to lead Andrew Jackson to a win over Cheraw and Chesterfield this week: Watkins had 18 points, 10 rebounds and a block in an 81-27 win at Cheraw on Jan. 4. He also had 17 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks in a 64-32 victory over Chesterfield on Jan. 7. Watkins is averaging 14.3 points and 10.2 rebounds per game for an Andrew Jackson team (11-4) that has won five straight games.

Vote and see running results here

How to nominate

Athlete of the Week awards highlight high school players with outstanding performances. The goal is to recognize all athletes — both the accomplished and the underrated/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. The Herald reserves the right to remove a name from the poll at its discretion.

This story was originally published January 10, 2022 at 3:05 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.