Overtime heartbreak: South Pointe boys fall to North Augusta in state title game
The South Pointe boys basketball team wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
Trailing by double digits in the first half, the Stallions rallied on several occasions and forced two overtimes.
But North Augusta scored the first five points in the second overtime on its way to a 64-56 win over the Stallions in the Class 4A state championship on Saturday at the Colonial Life Arena.
“They played their hearts out and left everything out on the court,” South Pointe coach Melvin Watson said of his players. “I got a lot of respect for my team. I really wanted it for them. But the journey is what was great. To be able to come back against Westside and win the last second and then win the Upper State championship was special. Then, we played our hearts out in a double-overtime game.”
Watson was back in Columbia where he was a standout guard for the South Carolina basketball team and was hoping to lead the Stallions to their second title. South Pointe also was looking to become the first team since Christ Church (2014-15) to win a football and basketball title in the same school year.
The Stallions won the football championship in December, and many of those players, including quarterback J’Zavien Currence and Anthony Baxter were in attendance at the game. Currence and Baxter are enrolled at South Carolina.
South Pointe had a knack for pulling out close games this year with a pair of overtime wins over Camden and then a thrilling 54-53 win over Westside in the second round of the playoffs. The Stallions missed out on Saturday on a couple chances at the end of regulation and the first overtime to seal the deal.
Tre Raymon led South Pointe with 22 points and six rebounds as his storied career in a Stallion uniform ended. Raymon went over the 2,000-point mark for his career in the lower state championship win over Lancaster.
“That kid has been with me for five years and his parents trusted me enough not to move him to a charter school or prep school,” Watson said of Raymon. “... He meant everything to this program and is one of the best to ever come through this program.”
Raymon, a senior, nearly willed South Pointe to a title especially in the second half. He scored nine straight points during a stretch at the end of regulation and the first overtime to put South Pointe up 51-47.
Raymon then found Jordan Hawkins for a layup that put South Pointe up 53-52 with 38 seconds left in the first overtime. But Toian Nabriat’s free throw with 25 seconds left tied it at 53-53 as the game went into the second overtime.
In the second overtime, South Pointe trailed by five before Trinten Stephenson’s 3-pointer cut the lead to 58-56 with 1 minute, 34 seconds left.
But the Yellow Jackets hit four straight free throws and then put a punctuation on it with Quh’mareon Webb’s dunk as the final buzzer sounded.
Webb led North Augusta with 21 points. Jordan Rouse added 17, and Nabriat scored 12.
North Augusta lost in last year’s championship game to Lancaster, and North Augusta coach Tony Harrell’s message to his team all year has been to “finish.”
“We finished,” Harrell said. “We didn’t finish in four quarters, we didn’t finish in the first overtime. But we finished the deal this year.”
The championship is North Augusta’s first for the boys basketball program and gives them a sweep of the 4A championships. NA’s girls team defeated Westside just before the boys game tipped off.
The Yellow Jackets’ championship also carried special meaning as the team honored former North Augusta player Cam’Ron Hallingquest, who was killed last month. Players carried his No. 4 jersey around as they celebrated the title.
Harrell got choked up talking about Hallingquest.
“We lost a great kid a few weeks ago,” the North Augusta coach said. “His spirit has been with us. The team rallied around it, the community rallied around it. It is just a great feeling right now.”
North Augusta: Quh’mareon Webb 21, Jordan Rouse 17, Toian Nabriat 12, Anderson 9, Wright 5. South Pointe: Treven Raymon 22, Trinten Stevenson 12, Phillips 7, Hawkins 5, Dupree 4, Mina 3, Reed 3.
