By CT McDonald
Last week was good and bad for Irmo’s varsity basketball teams: The girls won two home games and the boys lost two.
With last week’s victories, the Lady Yellow Jackets improved to 3-3 in Region 5-AAAA and 8-10 overall with a 56-42 win against Lugoff-Elgin (LE) and a 47-28 victory over Richland Northeast (RNE).
Against LE, Irmo trailed by a point (14-13) at halftime but then came alive in the second half to win it. The Yellow Jackets scored 20 points in the third period — to the Demons’ 4 — and 23 points in the fourth quarter — against LE’s 21 — to put the game away.
The Irmo girls led the game against Richland Northeast from the first period until the end to complete the week’s games in a third-place region tie with A. C. Flora. Westwood and Ridge View remain at No’s. 1 and 2, while RNE and Lugoff-Elgin follow Irmo and Flora.
On the boys side of the region, Irmo has taken three straight losses — two of them last week — in three consecutive close games at home.
After winning the first three region games, the Yellow Jackets took that double overtime loss against Westwood two weeks ago, and then lost two close conference games last week.
It was 50-56 against Lugoff-Elgin and 46-50 against Richland Northeast to finish the week’s games in a three-way tie with Westwood and RNE in conference wins and losses.
A. C. Flora and Ridge View hold the top two spots at 4-2, each, and Lugoff-Elgin (1-5) completes the region.
After the games early this week there will be just three left to play in the regular season. That’s when wins become even more important for those teams working toward a berth in the playoffs.
The Yellow Jackets were set to play Ridge View early this week, and they will be at home again on Friday to play host to A. C. Flora. Next week they wrap up the season in two road games: Westwood and Lugoff-Elgin.
In Region 4-AAAAA Dutch Fork’s girls broke even in last week’s conference games with a win and a loss, while the boys lost two.
On the girls’ side, the Silver Foxes defeated the region leader, Lexington, 62-49 in their only game of the week. The Wildcats and River Bluff continued in the top two spots in the region at 4-1, each, with Dutch Fork close behind at 3-1.
Chapin (1-4) and White Knoll (0-5) round out the conference.
The Dutch Fork boys lost to Lexington last week 66-37 to be at the No. 3 spot in the region, while the Wildcats and River Bluff are also the conference leaders in the boys competition. Chapin and White Knoll complete the region lineup.
Dutch Fork played at White Knoll early this week, and the Silver Foxes and Eagles will play at Chapin on Friday.
Next week the Foxes will complete the regular season with two home games; River Bluff on Tuesday and Lexington on Thursday.
After Friday’s game at home against Dutch Fork, Chapin will also wrap up its season next week with two home games; White Knoll on Tuesday and River Bluff on Thursday.
