Rock Hill and Northwestern each come away with rival wins and scars, plus all area scores

Rock Hill girls’ basketball coach Kenny Orr has given almost everyone on his team the “ultimate green light.”

And Alyssa Hankerson showed why.

The freshman shooting guard led the Bearcats with 16 points on Wednesday night, nailing four threes in the first half to fuel a 17-0 run in the second quarter and to all but seal a 62-19 rivalry win over cross-town neighbors Northwestern on RHHS’s home court.

“That’s one thing we tell our kids, like, ‘If you got an open look, you’re only going to miss the shots you don’t take,’” Orr told The Herald postgame. “A lot of people don’t realize that (Alyssa) leads the state in 3-point shooting, man. The kid can let it go. … I don’t care if she misses seven or eight in a row because I know she can run off four in a row.”

Orr added: “We have about six or seven kids who can hit threes. I don’t know too many teams that can (do that). That’s kind of our thing right now.”

And it’s a good “thing” to have.

Rock Hill is the top-ranked team in South Carolina 5A girls’ basketball, per the weekly S.C. Coaches Poll. The Bearcats have 16 players on their roster, most of whom are guards. They pick up full-court man-to-man defense and are fast. (Case in point: Their starting point guard, Jada Jones, just committed to go to Dartmouth — to run track.)

And the antidote to that? When teams try to slow the game down? When they go zone, trying to win the game with size — pretty much the only advantage Northwestern had on Wednesday night?

Rock Hill shoots.

And shoots well.

Not only that, the team is remarkably balanced: Eight different players have led the team in scoring this year, Orr said. And on Wednesday, eight players scored: Alyssa Hankerson had 16, and Gracie Wilson (9), Makayla Street (8), Laila Hankerson (7), Jada Jones (7), Alaina Hankerson (7), Katie Reed (6) and Layla Watson (2) contributed as well.

“We carry 16 players,” Orr said, “and anyone at different times can step up.”

Rock Hill has now won 12 in a row and sits at 17-3 and 4-0 in Region 4-5A. The Trojans, with the loss, fall to 13-5, 3-1 in Region 4-5A.

The boys’ game was also one-sided.

Northwestern boys’ head coach Caleb Gaither earned his first win over his city rival in his first try, and his team did so in emphatic fashion: The Trojans (12-6, 1-2 Region 4-5A) defeated Rock Hill (9-8, 0-4 Region 4-5A), 73-26.

The Trojans have been wrestling with their identity all season: They’re a group that looked great against the 4A defending state champions of South Pointe in December but also looked vulnerable in an 11-point loss at Lancaster in January.

Gaither preached consistency on Wednesday.

“We gotta have active hands and talk and be in a stance every possession — I don’t care if we’re up by 20 or down by 20 — because the great teams do that,” Gaither told The Herald postgame. “The teams that make a run and win state championships, they’re consistent across the board.”

The Trojans had nine guys in the scoring column on Wednesday night: Omari Bryson led the team with 21 points (five 3s), and Antonio Willis (10), Jecari Bryson (9), CJ Pope (8), Will Brooks (8), Jalen Burnett (6), Jayden Boyd (5) and Joey Tindale (2) also scored.

Here’s what else you need to know from the rest of the games this week.

Boys scores so far this week

Monday

Ridge View 66, Rock Hill 28

South Pointe 92, Indian Land 60

Catawba Ridge 75, York 44

Andrew Jackson 91, Buford 49

Tuesday

Fort Mill 53, Nation Ford 37

South Pointe 72, York 48

Lancaster 92, Indian Land 67

Chester 52, Fairfield Central 45

York Prep 67, Andrew Jackson 55

Great Falls 42, CA Johnson 39

Wednesday

Clover 62, Boiling Springs 53

Gaffney 43, Nation Ford 35

Catawba Ridge 45, Lancaster 43

Girls scores so far this week

Monday

Rock Hill 76, Ridge View 16

South Pointe 68, Indian Land 39

York 34, York Prep 15

Tuesday

Fort Mill 47, Nation Ford 40

South Pointe 59, York 27

Lancaster 45, Indian Land 39

Fairfield Central 57, Chester 21

Andrew Jackson 35, York Prep 9

Great Falls 50, CA Johnson 17

Wednesday

Clover 46, Boiling Springs 19

Gaffney 63, Nation Ford 45

Spring Valley 54, Fort Mill 31

Catawba Ridge 71, Lancaster 42

Sam Copeland contributed to this report.

This story was originally published January 26, 2022 at 11:44 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.