History! Catawba Ridge basketball beats AC Flora to make 1st Upper State title game
One of the most important sequences in Catawba Ridge’s brief but impressive basketball history happened in its close 55-49 win on Tuesday night — with the Copperheads reeling on the wrong end of a big, season-changing run.
It was 52-49, with Catawba Ridge leading AC Flora with 13 seconds left in the third round of the 4A state playoffs.
The Copperheads who once had all the momentum — going on a 13-0 run after halftime to at one point take a 41-23 lead in the third quarter — found themselves in a bit of trouble, struggling to break a suffocating halfcourt trap defense, waiting for something to go their way.
But then came that important, game-saving sequence: Catawba Ridge freshman Makailah Davis pushed the ball up the court despite relentless AC Flora pressure and got fouled. She hit both free throws to extend the game’s lead to 54-49.
And then, with the clock sinking to four seconds, Catawba Ridge junior Tatum Postel forced her opponent into a double-dribble turnover to give the Copperheads the ball back.
The crowd roared.
One free throw later, and that was it.
Catawba Ridge had escaped with a win over AC Flora — and, in the process, had advanced to the program’s first Upper State title game in its three-year history.
“It definitely doesn’t feel real,” said freshman Skyla Tuthill, who never was taken out of the game and ended with 12 points. “We’ve worked hard for this moment. I feel really appreciative to be here with my teammates, experiencing this for the first time. I feel like we really played as a team today. We were able to come up clutch at the end, hit some big free throws, and I just think it’s really great to be here with this team.”
The Copperheads (23-2) were told by head coach Sheridan Pressley that this game would be one of runs. Last week, against Easley, they built up a 20-plus-point lead only to see Easley make the game close before pulling away for a 68-54 win at home.
So were they at all worried when AC Flora charged back the way it did?
“Maybe a little,” Davis said postgame, with a smile. She finished with a team-high 20 points, including five fourth-quarter free throws to put the game away when it started to look bleak.
“But we got our teammates to pick us up,” Davis said, “and we hit big free throws at the end to bring us together.”
The Copperheads — a remarkably young team filled by six freshmen, one sophomore, three juniors and no seniors — saw three players besides Tuthill and Davis score on Tuesday night: Postel had 13, including two 3s in the third quarter. (She was also assigned to guard the opponent’s best offensive player and did so admirably.) Brielle Windisch finished with six, and Morgan Davis finished with four.
“I’m super proud of my kids and the way they played,” Pressley said postgame. “Peaks and valleys. It was going to be a game of runs, and we knew that. It was about sustaining runs, and I feel like we did that tonight.”
The Copperheads will face Westside — the No. 1-ranked team in South Carolina 4A basketball — at Bob Jones University in Greenville on Tuesday (March 1) for an Upper State championship and a shot to play in the state title game in Aiken the next week.
But that wasn’t necessarily on the minds of the Catawba Ridge players and coaches on Tuesday.
It hadn’t even truly hit them yet that they notched another Copperhead “first.”
“I don’t know if it’s necessarily sunk in until this very moment,” Pressley said of Catawba Ridge’s deepest run in the playoffs ever. “We’ve just been trying to prepare. … When we went in that locker room just now, we knew. It’s the final four now, and it’s exciting.”
Great Falls boys, Rock Hill girls also earn Upper State title spots
Three other teams from York, Chester and Lancaster counties as of Wednesday night have notched spots in state semifinal games.
▪ The Rock Hill girls won their 19th straight game when they defeated JL Mann, 67-32, on Tuesday night to advance to their second-straight 5A Upper State championship. The Bearcats are set to play Mauldin on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Bob Jones University in Greenville.
▪ The Great Falls boys used a 19-9 run in the second quarter to defeat CA Johnson 66-60 on Tuesday and advance to its third 1A Upper State title appearance in four years. The Red Devils last won a state championship in 2019, in head coach Alex Fair’s first year. They next play Calhoun County at Bob Jones on Saturday at 2 p.m.
▪ The Andrew Jackson girls beat Timberland on Wednesday, 72-54, to maintain a winning streak that has lasted since early December (which happens to be the last time they played 5A power Rock Hill). The Volunteers play in the 2A state semifinals on Monday at noon in Florence.
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 10:12 PM.
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