Lamar makes it three in a row over Timmonsville
Tatyana Peoples looks to make a pass to a teammate during the Feb. 25 game against Timmonsville.
Photos by Drake Horton
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
Before the start of this season it had been 25 years since the Lamar Lady Silver Foxes had defeated the Timmonsville Lady Whirlwinds.
Now for the third time this season Lamar has defeated the Lady Whirlwinds, with this one being the most decisive win yet, defeating Timmonsville 34-21 this past Monday, February 20 in front of a packed home crowd.
“I’m overwhelmed,” Lamar girls head coach Randolph Scott said after the game. “First of all I thank God for how he has manifested this basketball team to new heights and this program; without him, we can’t get it done.”
What made this win even more special than the other two this season, which were by just one point apiece, was that the winner moved on to the Bon Secours Wellness Area in Greenville, SC to play for the 1A upper state championship.
Any time a team makes it to any championship game it is a great accomplishment, but when a team gets to do it against one of their biggest rivals that makes it even more special.
From the start it was evident that neither team wanted to make any sudden moves as the game resembled a boxing match in the early rounds where both fighters were trying to get a feel for each other.
“One thing about playing them twice, you get to learn a lot of things from them and they got a chance to learn a lot of things from us,” Scott said.
Coming out of the first quarter down by two points, Lamar finally made its move, finding some offensive cohesiveness that resulted in a 10-0 run.
“We were looking at matchups and we knew we had a matchup that we felt real good about,” Scott said.
Behind Quantavia Coe and Simone Durant, Lamar got its first lead of the game in the second quarter and never looked back.
Durant scored her first points of the game, a three-pointer around midway in the second quarter, giving Lamar its first lead of the game at 9-7. After that basket, Timmonsville never led again as Durant scored seven points in the second quarter to go along with Quantavia Coe’s five points, sending Lamar into the half up 18-11.
With a seven point lead and just two quarters away from earning its second trip to the upper state championship since 2014, Lamar would have made the late Dean Smith, former head coach of the University of North Carolina men’s basketball team proud.
The Lady Silver Foxes moved the ball around beautifully, extending each possession offensively for Lamar, which resulted in Timmonsville being put into some bad situations on defense all while limiting the Lady Whirlwinds on offense.
“We worked on it and that was one of the things I felt like, we had enough ball handlers, if we got a comfortable lead that we could go to the slow-down game, but we weren’t trying to stall it all the way out, just slowing it down enough to get those quick layups to the basket.”
At the end of the third quarter Lamar had turned its seven-point lead into 14 and when something is not broken there is no reason to fix it as the Lady Silver Foxes did more of the same in the fourth quarter, wrapping up a 13 point victory.
It could have been more, but Lamar struggled some from the free throw line; its only blemish for the game.
LaQuan Coe was the leading scorer of the game for the Lady Silver Foxes, finishing with 11. Durant closed out the game with 10 points and Quantavia Coe had eight points.
Upper State Championship Recap
Lamar’s playoff run came to an end this past Saturday as Estill defeated the Lady Silver Foxes 47-40.
Leading scorer LaQuan Coe faces off against a Timmonsville player.
