Fort Mill girls go on late run to beat Clover

A hot start by Fort Mill and a late run in the fourth quarter gave the Jackets the momentum they needed to get a 28-19 win over the Clover Blue Eagles in Region III-4A play.

The first meeting between the two teams resulted in a similar win by Fort Mill. Both teams started slow to open the game and turnovers played a big part in the game as much as it did in the first meeting.

Fort Mill’s defense crowded the lane to keep the Blue Eagles forward Joelle Keffer from doing any damage to open the game. The Jackets took an early 5-0 lead midway through the first quarter with the help of a 3-pointer from Meredith Christopher.

Clover’s Renee Carter seemed to be the Blue Eagles best option in scoring as she led the team in the first half.

Fort Mill turned the ball over on their first two possessions, but was able to get their offense flowing again with a 3-pointer by Piper Starnes to start the second quarter for the Jackets.

Clover out rebounded Fort Mill in the second quarter, getting several shot attempts, but failed to convert the majority of them.

Fort Mill struggled with turnovers in the second quarter as much as Clover did in the first. Clover was also able to break Fort Mill’s half court trap to feed the ball down to the block for easy lay-ups.

Both team’s offense struggled in opening the second half as Keffer’s bucket was the only one between the two teams in the third quarter.

Turning point

Clover started the fourth quarter on a 4-0 run, which pulled them to within one of Fort Mill at 18-17 and forced a time out by Jackets’ head coach Brett Childers. Fort Mill struggled mightily in the second half as they went scoreless in the third quarter.

A Christopher 3-pointer got momentum swinging back in Fort Mill’s direction as it started a 9-0 Jackets run.

Critical

Fort Mill scored the first nine points of the game starting on a 9-0 run before a timeout by Clover. The Blue Eagles were able to stop some of the bleeding as Carter scored the first field goal of the game with about 2:15 left in the first quarter for Clover.

Clover’s struggle handling the ball led to seven first quarter turnovers, which aided Fort Mill as they were able to score in transition often off of those Blue Eagle mistakes.

Star contributions

Fort Mill was led by Christopher and freshman Amiah Lindsay, both of which scored eight points. Clover was led by Taylor Morneault, who scored five points.

Overheard

Childers said the win was one he will take, but agreed it was not a pretty one during the process.

“Offensively we didn’t have a good rhythm after the first quarter,” Childers said. “We haven’t been a great road team and that doesn’t help us.”

Box score

On deck

Fort Mill travels to Gaffney Friday night, while Clover travels to Shelby for a late season non-region game.

This story was originally published February 2, 2016 at 10:18 PM with the headline "Fort Mill girls go on late run to beat Clover."