Laila Hankerson of Rock Hill High is The Herald’s Athlete of the Week

Laila Hankerson of the Rock Hill girls’ basketball team is The Herald’s Athlete of the Week.

The 5-foot-6 junior had 16 points, five rebounds, six assists, four steals and a block to lead Rock Hill to an 81-35 win at Spring Valley on Jan. 11. She also had a season-high 24 points to go with six rebounds, four assists and five steals in a 64-47 win over Mallard Creek in the MLK Peace Showcase in Charlotte on Jan. 15.

Hankerson is averaging 11.6 points, four assists, 3.6 rebounds and 2.9 steals per game for a Rock Hill team that has now won 10 straight games.

There were 123,365 votes cast in this week’s poll. Hankerson earned 39% of the vote. Mariah Wallace of Lewisville earned 32% of the vote, and Nywun Cloud of Great Falls earned 14% of the vote.

View the rest of the finalists and see the poll’s full results below.

Statistics and records below have been updated through Monday, when this article was first published online.

Meet the finalists this week

Ke’Mari Boyd, Rock Hill boys’ basketball. The 5-foot-9 junior had 22 points, four assists, four rebounds and two steals in a 74-72 loss at Spring Valley on Jan. 11. Rock Hill is 9-6 this season.

Nywun Cloud, Great Falls boys’ basketball. The 6-foot-1 senior had 24 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals in a 78-37 win over Governor’s School for Science and Math on Jan. 11. He also had 27 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals in a 71-30 victory at McBee on Jan. 14. Great Falls (7-7) has won four straight games.

Laila Hankerson, Rock Hill girls’ basketball.

Bella Hoffman, Fort Mill wrestling. The Yellow Jacket senior went a perfect 5-0 with five pins at 120 pounds in the Fandetti-Richardson Classic at Science Hill High in Johnson City (Tenn.) on Jan. 7-8. She is 23-6 overall this season and is also ranked No. 15 in the country in her weight class, according to USA Wrestling. (It’s worth noting that Hoffman has been having success on the mat for a long time: She won a state championship in 2020, and that made her the first girls’ wrestling state champion in Fort Mill history.)

Camille Kerridge, Nation Ford girls’ basketball. The Falcon freshman guard had 20 points, four assists and two rebounds to lead Nation Ford to a 47-32 win over Boiling Springs on Jan. 11. She also had 13 points, two rebounds and two assists in a 52-26 loss to Clover on Jan. 14. Kerridge is averaging 19.8 points per game for Nation Ford (5-12) this season.

Noah Lee, Northwestern wrestling. The Trojan senior went 4-0 with three pins at 195 pounds to help his Northwestern team win the Clash at the Castle at Westwood High on Jan. 15. Lee is 22-7 overall for Northwestern (14-1) this season.

Carrigan McCloud, Indian Land girls’ basketball. The 5-foot-10 junior had a triple-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds, 10 steals, five assists and four blocks to lead Indian Land to a 40-30 win over Harding at the MLK Peace Showcase in Charlotte on Jan. 15. McCloud also had 18 points, nine rebounds and three steals in a 36-28 loss to York on Jan. 11. McCloud is averaging 18 points, nine rebounds and 3.5 steals per game for Indian Land (5-7) this season.

Kyle Neibch, Fort Mill boys’ basketball. The 6-foot-2 senior had 16 points — including three 3-pointers — and six rebounds to lead Fort Mill to a 60-41 win at Boiling Springs on Jan. 14. Neibch is averaging 16.2 points and 5.2 rebounds for Fort Mill (13-4) this season.

Skyla Tuthill, Catawba Ridge girls’ basketball. The 5-foot-11 freshman had 29 points, five rebounds and two assists to lead Catawba Ridge to a 70-51 win over South Pointe on Jan. 11. Catawba Ridge also beat York, 44-29, on Jan. 14. Tuthill is averaging 20 points and six rebounds per game for Catawba Ridge (15-1) this season.

Mariah Wallace, Lewisville girls’ basketball. The 5-foot-4 sophomore had 14 points, six steals, three rebounds and two assists to lead Lewisville to its second win of the season — a 40-9 victory at CA Johnson on Jan. 11. Wallace is averaging 8.2 points per game for Lewisville (2-8) this season.

View full results

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 17, 2022 at 1:42 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.