Falcons roll in region opener against Crestwood; Lady Falcons struggle
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
Darlington – It was a tale of two games in Darlington this past Friday night with the Darlington boys’ basketball team crushing the Crestwood Knights and the Darlington girls’ basketball team losing to the Lady Knights.
Darlington 74, Crestwood 40
It was back to normal this past Friday for the Darlington Falcons.
With a 74-40 win over the Crestwood Knights, the Falcons snapped a two game losing streak and earned an all-important region victory all in the process.
Darlington used a balanced attacked offensively with three scoring in double digits to help defeat the Knights. Tyshaun Johnson led the way for the Falcons with 12 points while Kenynon Scott and Kris’shawn Hickman both finished with 11
But while those three were instrumental in helping lead Darlington to the win, it was Malike Cooper who really brought the energy to the game according to head coach Ken Howle.
“I think that it was key to getting him on the floor, the kids just respond so much to him, so positively,” Howle said. “He brings a lot of energy and it’s contagious on the bench, it’s contagious on the floor and we got to get him on the floor some. He responded well.”
The start of the game was ugly for both teams offensively, but defensively it worked out great for Darlington as the Falcons shut the Knights out in the first quarter 9-0.
Darlington began to warm up offensively in the second quarter. By the time both teams went into the half, the Falcons were leading by 21 and looked to be in a different league than Crestwood.
In the third quarter the Falcons flexed their muscles against Crestwood. Using continuous pressure that is probably still giving the Knights’ ball handlers nightmares, Darlington forced what seemed to be turnover after turnover, which led to an array of easy baskets.
“We’ve played man all year and played some zone press tonight,” Howle said. “We’ve been working on it a little bit.”
Crestwood finally matched Darlington in the scoring column in the fourth quarter, but by then the Falcons lead was so massive it did not even matter.
The Falcons are 12-5 on the year and 1-0 in the region.
Darlington 22, Crestwood 62
It was a night worth forgetting for the Darlington Lady Falcons.
Playing in their first region game of the year the Falcons were lifeless against Crestwood, playing their worse game of the year.
While 22 points looks bad in the scoring column, it was quite impressive when you add the fact that Darlington only scored three points in both first and fourth quarter.
Offensively the Lady Falcons were just unable to get anything going. Hope Richardson, the focal point of Darlington’s offense, was held to just four points.
The game against Crestwood was quite a turnaround from the previous two games against Marlboro County and Cheraw in which the Lady Falcons won 38-30 against the Lady Bulldogs and 59-18 against the Lady Braves.
Darlington is now 11-5 on the year and 0-1 in the region.
