Fort Mill Yellow Jackets fall to Spring Valley in playoffs

For most of the season, everything came together for the Fort Mill Yellow Jackets.

On Tuesday night, it all fell apart as the Spring Valley Vikings used its height to beat Fort Mill 58-49 in the third round of the 4A state playoffs.

Not having much height was something Fort Mill was able to work with most of the season, however, against Spring Valley, it was something they had no choice but to contend with as the Vikings consistently out rebounded the Jackets.

“We didn’t shoot the ball well,” said Fort Mill head coach Dwayne Hartsoe. “Their size and length made the difference. We had a good season.”

Coming into the game, Fort Mill had to be aware of Spring Valley’s Jordan Bruner, their 6-foot-9 senior who is committed to Yale University and was averaging a double-double this season in each game.

Spring Valley started the game with getting a technical for dunking in warm-ups giving Fort Mill the ball and two foul shots to open the game. Fort Mill’s Tanner Mitchell hit both shots and then got foul on the Jackets’ first true possession, where he hit two more foul shots.

The Vikings came right back and scored two straight baskets to tied the game within the first minute.

Spring Valley’s Deangelo Ward got hot early and led the Vikings on a 9-0 run scoring seven of his team’s first nine points. On the other end, Fort Mill had three turnovers and got off just a couple of shots to start.

Fort Mill struggled with its shooting in the first quarter and didn’t hit a field goal before Hartsoe called his first time out with 2:32 left in the opening quarter. Mitchell finally gave Fort Mill its first field goal of the game with 91 seconds left in the quarter on a 3-pointer. Fort Mill was able to get a steal and tied the game at 11 as time expired in the first quarter with a Ryan Deluca layup.

Fort Mill wasn’t able to keep up with Spring Valley at the start of the second quarter and the Vikings quickly started to pull away to take a 24-15 lead. Poor shooting and turnovers caused a lot of the Jackets’ woes in the second quarter. Despite the poor play, Fort Mill was only down 28-19 at the half.

Turning point

Spring Valley opened the second half on a 6-2 run to make a nine-point halftime lead into a 13-point lead forcing Fort Mill into a time out early in the second half. Fort Mill continued to struggle shooting the ball and trying to move around the Vikings’ height.

Fort Mill started chipping away at the Vikings lead in the fourth quarter using a more open offense to get baseline lay-ups. However, on the defensive side of things, Fort Mill struggled to stop Spring Valley and additional turnovers by the Jackets only aided the Vikings.

Critical

Spring Valley opened the second quarter on another run to regain the lead and again used its speed and quickness to cause Fort Mil to turn the ball over. Fort Mill struggled to get to the basket battling the Vikings’ height advantage. Spring Valley out scored Fort Mill 17-8 in the quarter as the Jackets hit just three of 16 shots in the period.

Star contributions

Fort Mill was led by Mitchell, who scored 23 points. Spring Valley was led by four players who scored in double figures. Ward led the Vikings with 14 points, followed by 13 points from Javondii Myers and Noah Harper. Bruner rounded out the double digit scoring with 12 points.

Overheard

Spring Valley head coach Perry Dozier said he expected a tough challenge from Fort Mill.

“I expected them to give us a run and they did,” Dozier said. “Our team really decided it wanted to win this game. I can’t take credit. It was the kids.”

Box score

This story was originally published February 23, 2016 at 9:57 PM with the headline "Fort Mill Yellow Jackets fall to Spring Valley in playoffs."