Falcons make it two over Hartsville; Lady Falcons use run in fourth to ice game
By Drake Horton
Contributing Writer
Both the Darlington Falcons and Lady Falcons basketball teams made it an even more special night on Hall of Fame night in the Falcons’ Nest as the two made it a clean sweep of the Hartsville boys’ and girls’ basketball teams this past Friday night.
Darlington (boys) 76, Hartsville (boys) 60
Offense might put fans in the stands, but it is defense that wins championships.
At least that is the philosophy Darlington is using as it defeated the Hartsville Red Foxes for the second time this season, winning 76-60 in front of packed house on Hall of Fame night.
“We challenged them all summer long, all fall long, if we want to be a great team we have to do it defensively,” Darlington boys’ head coach Anthony Heilbronn said. “We have to be able to stop these better teams and right now that is what we are able to do.”
Going into the game Heilbronn and his coaching staff knew Hartsville’s main offensive option was Tre Hannibal, a signee to the University of South Carolina. So instead of really trying to shut Hannibal down it focused on everybody else and that proved to be the winning strategy.
Hannibal finished with a game high 28 points, but Hartsville only scored 60, meaning all other players combined for just 32 points.
“We knew Tre was going to get his, we knew Tre would get his 20, 25, possibly 30 so our thing was could we limit everybody else, if we were to cut everybody else off. Tre alone, he’s great, but he can’t beat five good team players and tonight that showed,” Heilbronn said.
While Hartsville’s scoring was lopsided, Darlington, as it has been for the entire year, was a picture of balance with three players in double-digits and another two finishing just outside of that with eight.
“When taking this team over there was no superstar. I knew that coming into it and we kind of embraced the fact that any given night we have four guards that can go off for 20; they’ve all had 20-point games this season,” Heilbronn said. “Tonight it was Kenynon; he had 17 at half; you know Tre’Quan had 18; 13 of those in the second half. So in the first half it was Kenynon; in the second half it was Tre’Quan.”
This has been quite the first season for Heilbronn, who has his Falcons sitting 16-2 overall, 3-0 in the region. But it is not the start on how he wants this season to be remembered, it is the finish and that is what he is striving toward preparing his team mentally for.
“Our goal early in the season was to win the region,” Heilbronn said. “We know that by winning the region you have three home playoff games and then the Civic Center so the lower-state would run through Darlington and for us this gym is tough to play in, especially with an atmosphere like tonight, you have an hour, two-hour bus ride and then come into this, it’s tough, so our goal to staying motivated is to win the region and to do that, you are going to need eight, maybe even nine wins.”
Darlington (girls) 52, Hartsville (girls) 45
The Darlington Lady Falcons snapped a two-game region losing streak and defeated the Hartsville Lady Red Foxes 52-45.
After a first quarter that saw the Lady Falcons hold an 11-3 lead over Hartsville, Darlington looked like it might run away with it, but cold starts in both the second and third quarter kept the Lady Foxes right in game.
During both quarters the Lady Falcons started off very rugged, struggling to make anything, but while the starts of those quarters were rough, the finishes were flawless with Darlington closing out the second and third quarters on 7-2 runs.
The Lady Falcons used the momentum at the end of the third to help propel the start of the fourth, but a once eight-point lead shrank to just one point before Darlington used a late 9-0 run in the final two minutes to ice the game away.
“I had called a timeout and was trying to settle my team down,” Darlington girls’ head coach Brad Knox said. “I knew if I could settle them down and we could take a layup when a layup is given, we could stretch the lead because they were going to foul us and we were in the bonus. I told them to take care of the ball, run our offense and good things will happen for us.”
Hartsville hit a three-pointer at the buzzer, but too late.
“I am just proud of how our kids responded,” Knox said. “It’s been like seven years since we’ve beat Hartsville. It is just a big relief.”
