Lancaster High School boys, girls sweep Indian Land, secure second seed in region playoffs
The Lancaster High School girls’ and boys’ basketball teams swept Indian Land on Friday night to complete season sweeps of the Warriors, earning for both teams the right to open the postseason on their home court. The Indian Land teams also both qualified for postseason play, but will start on the road.
Girls: Lancaster 50, Indian Land 42
Lancaster’s Eliza Baskins scored a game-high 27 points to lead the Bruins past Indian Land, 50-42.
Indian Land opened the game with a 5-0 run, but Lancaster closed the first quarter on a 10-2 run of its own to take a three-point lead into the first break — a lead it did not relinquish.
Every time Indian Land inched closer, the Bruins knocked down a big shot or created a turnover to maintain or grow their advantage, and Lancaster extended its lead to seven at halftime.
Indian Land again made a run at the lead in the third, cutting Lancaster’s advantage to just two, 30-28, heading into the fourth quarter, but again, every time Indian Land made a run, Lancaster had an answer.
“I think what happened there is when we were close, there’s missed assignments,” Indian Land head coach Kevin King said. “They would go too far or do too much or gamble, and when they gambled, (Lancaster) might hit a great bucket or a great layup.”
The fourth quarter belonged to Lancaster. The Bruins extended their lead to double digits thanks to a 16-5 run, largely on the back of Baskins, who scored 14 points in the quarter.
“She’s a workhorse force,” Lancaster head coach Ronnie Robinson said. “She gets baskets when we needed, she created turnovers when we needed, she does a lot of great things for us that really helps us out. She didn’t lose her cool with the (defensive) box on her. That’s what I was kind of worried about, but she kept her composure and did what she needed to do and just took what the defense gave us.”
Lancaster’s aggressive, full-court press forced Indian Land into several turnovers in the backcourt, which the Bruins converted into easy baskets.
“We knew a little pressure would affect them,” Robinson said. “We did one press earlier, and then it was a little more laid-back press. Then, we extended it out a little more and switched to another press where we’re on the ball more, and we went man a couple times to create some turnovers. We knew (Indian Land’s Skylar Young) was a good ball handler, but we knew we could possibly create some turnovers and cause some havoc on some of them.”
Young led Indian Land with 15 points.
The win puts Lancaster (7-14, 7-3) in second place in the region, and the Bruins will play Greer at home. Indian Land (9-16, 5-5) falls to fourth place in the region, and will go on the road to play Wade Hampton.
Both games are scheduled for Feb. 13 at a time to be determined.
Boys: Lancaster 49, Indian Land 40
The Lancaster boys led wire to wire in a 49-40 victory over Indian Land, in a game with high-stakes playoff implications.
With the win, Lancaster secured a first-round playoff game. If Indian Land had won, it could have earned first place in the region.
However, Lancaster junior Jordan Watford scored ten of his team-high 19 points in the first quarter as the Bruins took a 14-6 lead early and held on the rest of the way.
Lancaster played solid on the defensive end on the court, stifling the region’s second-highest scoring attack.
“We come up with a great game plan,” Lancaster head coach Jerron Cauthen said. “We wanted a low-scoring game. Defense, that’s our calling card. We work on man-to-man defense. If anybody knows, we played man-to-man all year long, and once we got into the second half of region, we started playing more of a zone. That kept our legs fresh, so when we needed to go back to man, we were fresh and we stayed out of foul trouble.”
Indian Land threatened to go on a run at multiple points throughout the game after falling behind, but Lancaster always made a timely stop on defense, or a timely basket on offense, to keep the momentum from swinging too far in the Warriors’ favor.
In the fourth quarter, Malik Tinsley played the hero for Lancaster. The 5-9 sophomore was a big component of Lancaster’s defense, forcing multiple turnovers either with steals or by forcing bad passes. He scored all 11 of his points in the second half of the game, including eight in the fourth quarter.
“Malik Tinsley is a true point guard,” Cauthen said. “He knows how to play, and he can knock down that shot. He can take care of the ball, he can knock down a shot, he can get downhill, he can score, he’s not afraid to get in there and mix it up. We’re very proud of that.”
Lancaster took advantage of being at home, and the Bruins’ crowd appeared to rattle Indian Land, hampering the team’s efforts at getting plays in.
Warriors coach LJ Johnson knows his team will now likely be on the road for every playoff game, and Friday night was a microcosm of what he sees as a potential weakness heading into the postseason.
“We didn’t do a good job of eliminating the crowd noise, and we didn’t do a good job of getting back in transition,” Johnson said. “We’ve been pretty good in transition for the last six games, limiting teams in transition and their second-chance opportunities. We didn’t do a good job of that tonight. And in this environment, two points or one basket can feel like ten points. So give props to the home team because they definitely took advantage of our lack of detail and our lack of discipline.”
Sophomore guard Mike Jones led the Warriors with 19 points.
Lancaster (19-7, 8-2) will be at home to play Eastside in the first round of the playoffs, while Indian Land (19-7, 7-3) goes on the road to play Greer.
Both games are scheduled for Feb. 14 at a time to be determined.