Andrew Jackson girls storm back to punch ticket to 2A state championship game
Andrew Jackson simply didn’t quit.
The Volunteers (23-3), after succumbing to Silver Bluff’s fast-paced will and entering halftime down 27-18, used a huge comeback in the second half to defeat Silver Bluff 45-40 and win the Class 2A Lower State championship in the Civic Center in Florence on Monday afternoon.
AJ was making its first state semifinal appearance since 2017 on Monday. With the win, the team will play in its first state championship game since the 2013-14 season on Saturday at noon against Christ Church at USC Aiken, where the program will try to win its first state championship since 1983.
“We know we’re young,” Andrew Jackson head coach Derek Vick told reporters postgame, his voice a bit hoarse from yelling on the sideline and celebrating at mid-court with his team postgame. “The spotlight might’ve been a little too bright for us in the beginning. But we knew once we got in there, we settled them down. Our thing all year long has been: ‘Rely on your defense. Offense will come.’ That’s what brought us back in the second half.”
Silver Bluff was hoping to advance to its second-straight state championship appearance.
The Volunteers made two huge bursts in the second half: Their first one cut the game to within two with about 3:50 left in the third, thanks to relentless full-court pressure. And the second came in the closing minutes of the fourth — one that required a few huge freshman Tamia Watkins and eighth-grader Ni’Yonna Asbelle floaters, plus some great defense and then some clutch free-throw shooting to seal it.
AJ ended the game on a 17-3 run.
“Ni’Yonna is just a pure athlete who is just a very lovable kid,” Vick said when asked about his eighth-grade guard. “And she’s going to give you everything she knows to do. She’s done a great job of playing just one year of varsity so far and then being put into this situation, where she’s having to be a starter and a leader. She’s done a great job handling that role all year long.”
The Volunteers are a remarkably young team, one that starts an eighth grader and two freshmen — Emiley McCall and Watkins. And these three were huge on Monday afternoon.
Said Silver Bluff head coach Chasen Redd postgame: “Hats off to Andrew Jackson and (Watkins), she’s a heck of a player. We knew we were going to have to do our best to stop her. I thought we did good in the first half, but the second half we kind of let her get her groove back. It affected the outcome.”
Only four players scored for AJ: Watkins finished with a team-high 18 points. Asbelle finished with 16, McCall finished with nine and Annsley Vick scored two — including the game’s final free throw.
At the end, coach Vick turned his team’s attention to the AJ fans who’d driven all the way from Lancaster County on a Monday afternoon to be there, and the fans roared.
“This is my first year as head coach, but I’ve been here nine years as an assistant,” Vick said, adding, “This doesn’t come across all the time. So when the opportunity is here, you better make the most of it. And that’s what we told them.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2022 at 2:11 PM.
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