York girls surge away from Fort Mill

York girls’ basketball won 12 games combined the last three seasons, but the Cougars are already halfway to that total this season after Thursday night’s 50-41 home win against Fort Mill.

First-year coach Marilyn Milton only has one senior and is starting three underclassmen, but that trio – Sara Morris, Natalee Graham and Ramsey Green – combined to score 39 of the Cougars’ 50 against the Yellow Jackets.

“Our sophomores and freshmen are playing very well for us,” said Milton, who came to York from Chester. “And we are young. We definitely have high expectations for them and they’re working to fulfill those.”

York (6-3, 1-1 Region 3-4A) built a 10-2 lead less than 3 minutes into the game. Six-foot-2 center Morris –- battling a groin injury – scored inside twice and Graham drilled a 3, forcing a Fort Mill (1-5, 0-2) timeout with 5 minutes, 35 seconds left in the first quarter. Sporting long sleeves, Graham was never in danger of cooling off; she hit five triples in the game.

But that was the last field goal the Cougars scored for the next nine-plus minutes, a span in which Fort Mill grabbed the lead. Ramsey Green’s free throws pushed the York lead to 12-4, but the Yellow Jackets scored 16 unanswered points, a pair of 3’s by Eliza Denmeade doing a chunk of the damage. It was one of her triples from the right corner – her sweet spot evidently – that put the visitors up 20-12 and forced Marilyn Milton into a timeout with 4 minutes, 39 seconds left in the first half.

Milton said the same thing happened in the third quarter of York’s 65-48 loss to Gaffney in Tuesday’s region opener.

But York closed the gap before the half, though, and took the game over in the third quarter. A Graham 3, Heather Pumphrey transition bucket and Morris put-back gave York a 35-30 lead. The Cougars never trailed from there, and even grew their lead to 11 points courtesy of another Graham triple. Fort Mill cut into the lead late but was unable to mount a magical comeback.

“One of our goals this week was to finish with two wins,” she said. “But we came back yesterday and had a good practice, and then came out ready to play today.”

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 8:43 PM with the headline "York girls surge away from Fort Mill."