Catawba Ridge-South Pointe split region openers; Stallion forward reaches milestone

The South Pointe girls basketball team had a dominant first-quarter performance on way to an 87-36 win over Catawba Ridge on Thursday night.

The Stallions (13-2, 1-0) entered the week as the top-ranked 4A team in the state and showed every bit of that against the Copperheads, jumping out to a 33-2 lead.

There was even more to celebrate for South Pointe, as senior forward Victoria “Starr” Morris reached 1,000 career points on a layup early in that first frame.

Morris finished with a game-high 21 points.

“I wasn’t supposed to know about it, but my teammates did tell me,” she said. “It felt really good to just hit that milestone, have my name on the 1,000-point club. That was good. It felt really good.

“I feel really good about the win. I feel like we executed the plan as best as we could. We played defense, we passed the ball really well and I think our overall shot percentage was pretty good.”

There was a lot that South Pointe head coach Stephanie Butler-Graham may have had on her mind heading into Thursday’s game.

This was the first game for South Pointe since Dec. 30. Inclement weather forced this matchup to be postponed for two days.

Also, playing at Catawba Ridge has not been kind to the Stallions in recent memory.

South Pointe has had two season-ending injuries to key players in this road matchup over the past two seasons, losing both of those games. Last season’s loss caused the Stallions to miss out on a region championship by just two points thanks to tiebreakers.

Butler-Graham said she saw a lot for her team to improve on, but most importantly, she’s just glad her team came away with a win and no serious injuries.

“Outside of Victoria hitting a momentous milestone, I thought we played a lot like we hadn’t played in maybe 10-plus days,” Butler-Graham said. “So we’ll shake the cobwebs off hopefully and just try to get ready for Lancaster tomorrow. I thought we moved the ball early well, but all the other stuff, we’ve got to tighten up on.”

The loss stands as Catawba Ridge’s (2-14, 0-1) fifth-consecutive.

It’s been a tough season for a program one season removed from a region title, but head coach Sheridan Pressley has been seeing progress.

“We’ve played a tough, non-conference schedule,” she said. “We open region with South Pointe, and they’re a great team. They have a rich tradition, and we’re continuing to build our tradition that’s fairly new. But we have the opportunity to go out and compete, and I think that we’re going to be able to do that throughout the rest of region.”

Trailing 37-8 after the first quarter, the Copperheads found some offensive momentum through senior Morgan Davis.

Davis led the team with 20 points.

“I think Morgan played extremely well,” Pressley said. “She plays her tail off every single night, and that’s something that she’s always done for us. We can’t ask her to play any harder.”

South Pointe will next play Lancaster at home on Jan. 12 at 6:15 p.m., while Catawba Ridge will go on the road to play York on Jan. 12 at 6:00 p.m.

The boys game was a different story, as Catawba Ridge was the side to put up a dominant first-half performance en route to a 65-46 victory over South Pointe.

The Copperheads (14-2, 1-0) came out on fire offensively, racing out to a 44-22 halftime lead over the Stallions.

Senior guard Zyan Hager scored 20 of his game-high 24 points in that first half for Catawba Ridge, knocking down five threes in the process.

Senior Landon Foley put up a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while sophomore Lance Barnes finished with nine points, six assists, three rebounds and two steals.

“(Zyan’s) having a great senior year, and he’s shooting the ball really well,” head coach Brett Childers said. “He’s really good, coming on at the right time, and him and Lance (Barnes) are the catalysts for the team. Most nights, they get us off to really good starts with Lance penetrating, diving, knifing and playing really good defense, finding Zyan, and Zyan’s looking back for Lance. Those two play off each other really well, and the rest of the guys feed off of them.”

Catawba Ridge opened up 1-2 in the region last year, including a region-opening loss to South Pointe.

Childers is glad his team ended up on the right side of the contest this year and hopes that the momentum will carry the team throughout their region slate.

“One of our goals this year was to get off to a good start,” Childers said. “And we know that’s a real battle. We’ve had some tough battles with South Pointe, and they’re a tough, tough team. ... They have a really good program, so we never know what it’s going to be like. We know it’s going to be a dogfight. The region plays really tough. To get off to a win and get off to a good start is really important to us.”

South Pointe (6-11, 0-1) put up a fight in the game, outscoring Catawba Ridge 24-21 in the second half. But the first-half deficit was just too much for the Stallions to overcome.

Junior RJ Hill lead the Stallions with 16 points, while sophomore Tre Raymon finished with ten.

“Just trying to come out with energy. (We) came out pretty flat,” Geral Nabritt said. “We executed in the third quarter and the fourth quarter, kept them to the points that we needed to keep them to. We just got hit in the mouth in the first quarter.”

Nabritt filled in for South Pointe head coach Melvin Watson, who had to miss the game due to sickness.

Nabritt coaches the team during summer and fall workouts and is also South Pointe’s junior-varsity basketball head coach, so he knows what to expect from the players on the team.

This loss comes after the Stallions started to find some rhythm, winning four of their previous six contests.

Nabritt knows what his team is capable of, but for them to reach their potential, they’ll have to refocus on the common goal of playing winning basketball.

And that doesn’t just magically manifest on game day.

“You go right back to practice again,” Nabritt said. “Go back to practice and you keep doing the same exact thing that you’ve been working on since day one. Nothing changed. Nothing changes, because you’re young. You’re going to get beat in. You’re going to get beat up. You’re going to get beat by 20. You’re going to win a lot of games. But you have to start at the foundation of what you’re doing, and that’s practicing. Keep practicing, keep practicing and execute until you get to a level that you want to play in.”

Catawba Ridge will next play at York on Jan. 12 at 7:30 p.m., while South Pointe will face reigning-region champion Lancaster at home on Jan. 12 at 7:45 p.m.