Hartsville splits with South Florence
By: Don Gearhart
After a Winter break, it appeared both Hartsville and South Florence weren’t going to be satisfied with just four quarters of basketball in either the girls or boys contests. Both games went into overtime with the Hartsville Lady Red Foxes upsetting a heavily favored South Florence Lady Bruins in one overtime period. Just the opposite occurred in the boys game as the Bruins used two overtime periods to defeat the favored Red Foxes.
Girls Game:
Jazzy Frierson got the Lady Red Foxes off to a fast start with a pair of three-point shots to open the game. She dropped three free throws to finish with nine points in the opening stanza leading Hartsville to 14-10 lead at the horn. Jaida Cameron countered with six for South Florence.
The second period was all South Florence as they outscored the hosts 16-9 in the period to take a 26-23 lead at halftime.
Hartsville drew even at the end of the third period when Tatiana Fisher banked home a shot as she was fouled and made the free throw to knot the score at 34-34.
Hartsville and South Florence both opened their offenses up in the fourth quarter. Two trifectas from Brooke Mitchell and five points from Frierson led the way. The Bruins countered with ten points inside the key from Krystal Baker. The Lady Red Foxes had several chances to put the game away in regulation but a missed free throw with 38 seconds to go left the door open for the Lady Bruins to tie the score at 52-52.
Frierson took charge in the overtime period, scoring eight of her team’s eleven in the period with free throws at the end making the difference for Hartsville in a thrilling 63-61 victory. She also had a game-high 32 points on the night.
Boys Game:
Kameron Foman and Deandre Huggins each scored six points in the opening quarter to give Hartsville a 17-11 lead at the end of the period. South Florence got six points from Jamarie Brown to keep the game in reach at 32-27.
Foman added another six points and Huggins netted four points, but South Florence closed to within five at the break thanks to a ten-point stanza from Brown.
Both teams came out cold after the halftime break scoring only four points apiece.
The Red Foxes began to penetrate the key and Huggins led the way. They built a ten-point lead with three minutes left to play and seemed to have control of the game with a 48-38 lead. All of a sudden, Hartsville had difficulty getting an inbounds pass and Joseph McMillan became hot and scored ten points down the stretch to send the game into overtime with a 49-49 score. The game-tying shot by McMillan was a three-pointer that hit nothing but the net.
In the first extra period, both teams were tentative. The Bruins finally gained a two-point advantage but Foman banked home a basket at the buzzer to make the score 57-57 and forcing another overtime period. Foman and Huggins put the Red Foxes ahead at 61-59. Then McMillan flipped the score in favor of the Bruins with another trifecta from the top of the key giving South Florence a 62-61 advantage. Hartsville had a chance to regain the lead but missed two free throws. With time running out, they had to foul in order to get the ball back. That backfired when Brown drained two free throws to set the final score at 64-61 in favor of South Florence.
Huggins had a game-high 24 points for Hartsville with Foman adding 21 in support. McMillan topped the Bruins with 21 points and was supported by Brown with 20 points.
