Catawba Ridge boys’ basketball stays perfect in region play, sweeps Lancaster

Catawba Ridge head coach Brett Childers walked down his bench high-fiving every person he passed.

It was in the waning seconds of his team’s 66-56 win over No. 8 Lancaster on Friday night, a win against a region rival that kept Catawba Ridge (21-2, 8-0) in the driver’s seat for a region title.

The Copperheads played most of the fourth quarter with a single-digit lead as the Bruins threatened to come back, but Catawba Ridge withstood the challenge.

It was a game where the energy — and the relief after the final buzzer — was more than tangible.

“That was a playoff game, no question,” Childers said. “All the games in the playoffs are going to be just like that. Playing in those environments, coming up next week against Indian Land and Northwestern, those are going to be playoff-type environments. That was great for us to experience and for the guys to pull through like that.”

It didn’t start off close. Catawba Ridge opened the game on a 12-3 run, but Lancaster ripped off a 9-0 run of its own to tie the game, and the Bruins kept it close for the rest of the half. The Copperheads went into halftime leading, 30-27.

Catawba Ridge extended its lead to 52-40 heading into the fourth quarter, but again, Lancaster came roaring back, posting a 12-4 run to cut its deficit to just four.

Catawba Ridge held on, thanks to some timely shots from guards Zyan Hager and Quh’Mareon Webb. Hager tied the game high with 16 points, while Webb finished with 13.

Emotions ran high througout the game. Players from both schools were assessed technical fouls, and each team had at least one starter foul out. Catawba Ridge lost two starters, and Childers said he was happy with how his team managed to “weather that storm.”

“We had a lot of good things happen and then a bad thing happened,” he said. “And we talked about that. We preach that throughout practice, but it’s hard. It’s one thing to say it in practice; it’s another thing to live through it out in the game. I thought our guys handled it okay for the most part. When we needed to knuckle down, we did.”

The Bruins (17-7, 6-2) still have a lot to play for despite no longer being in the hunt for a region title.

A win over Indian Land in its final game of the season would lock up the No. 2 seed in the region for Lancaster, a finish that would come with a first-round home playoff game.

There are still at least three games to play this season for the defending 4A upper state champions, something Lancaster coach Jerron Cauthen made sure to remind his players.

“I tell my guys all the time, ‘we don’t get too high on a win, and we don’t get too low on a loss,’” Cauthen said. “If you got to lose a game, you’d rather lose to a potential state champion or a team that’s going to compete for a state championship than to be losing to teams that you’re clearly better than.”

Jordan Watford led the Bruins with 16 points.

Catawba Ridge will next go on the road to play Indian Land, while Lancaster will face York at home. Both games tip off Tuesday, Feb. 6 at 7:45 p.m.