By Thomas Grant Jr.
It was a contrast over the past three games for Dutch Fork’s basketball teams.
The eighth-ranked Silver Foxes found themselves in position to claim sole possession of first place in Region 4-5A. They earned their second straight win Thursday beating White Knoll 61-57.
Bryson Taylor posted a career-high 30 points and Justus Bell added 19 as the Silver Foxes rallied from a six-point third-quarter deficit.
It was the last game on the sidelines this season for Timberwolves head coach Willie Thomas. The 6-time state champion and S.C. Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame member suffered a heart attack the next day.
He was rushed to Lexington Medical Center where he reportedly underwent a triple bypass surgery. Thomas underwent another procedure Friday, while assistant coach Cal Pearson will serve in the interim for the remaining games.
The same day saw the Dutch Fork boys improve to 3-0 in the region following an 82-36 rout of Lexington. Bell scored 22 points, Jake Bogan had 12 and Caleb Garner finished with 10 for Dutch Fork.
This set up a battle for first place in the region Tuesday in The Swamp against River Bluff.
Lady Silver Foxes
The fourth-ranked Lady Silver Foxes also started the week with a tough 47-42 win over White Knoll. This set up a region showdown with eighth-ranked Lexington at Wildcat Gymnasium.
After trailing 22-18 at the end of the first quarter, the Lady Silver Foxes outscored the Lady Wildcats 21-12 to take a 39-34 halftime lead. Center Claire Howard scored eight of her 21 points in the second quarter.
The Lady Wildcats rallied in the third quarter, outscoring Dutch Fork 18-9 to take a 52-48 lead. The Lady Wildcats extended their lead to nine points following a Braidi Goodrich jumper to go up 65-56 with 3:30 left.
The Lady Silver Foxes used their full court pressure defense to score 11 unanswered points. Leading the charge was All-State senior Michaela Fairwell who scored 11 of her game-high 22 points in the final quarter.
This included a steal and layup with 12.9 seconds left to put Dutch Fork up 66-65.
Lexington’s Goodrich quickly inbounded the basketball to Izzy Saville, who threw up ahead to Cassidy Harry who found an open Jaleya Lytes at the top of the key.
The junior quickly lofted a bank shot which zipped through the nets with 2.9 seconds left. Dutch Fork was unable to stop the clock and the Lady Wildcats came away with the 68-66 victory.
This left Dutch Fork head coach Candace Bush 17 hours to regroup her team. They faced Class 4A eighth-ranked Gray Collegiate in the MLK Bash at Eau Claire High School.
“Every team goes through adversity,” said Bush before the game. “It’s just if you’re going to push through it or kind of like tuck your tail and (act) like you didn’t get you. But, I let them know every team goes through adversity. You’ve got to pick it up and keep going.”
Adversity hit Dutch Fork in the third quarter as it fell behind 26-21. Answering Bush’s message, the Lady Silver Foxes used a 13-0 run to take a 34-26 lead.
The Lady War Eagles got within four points at the end of the fourth quarter. Dutch Fork’s defense limited Gray Collegiate to two field goals the rest of the game in the 41-34 win.
Howard had 15 points to earn Player of the Game honor and Trinity Crumlin finished with 11 on a day Fairwell had a season-low three points. However, Bush was more than pleased with Fairwell and her team’s defensive effort which she believes will be key going into the second half of the region schedule.
“We have up and down spurts,” Bush said. “The last two of (games), we played White Knoll. When we played Lexington, we weren’t playing as hard as were in the beginning of the season. I felt like they leaned more towards their skill and their talent level versus playing hard because both of those games I just felt like we got outplayed.
“Skill-level wise I didn’t feel like it was even, but the teams outplayed us and that’s what I tried to let them know in practice. We’re getting outplayed. We’ve got to stop getting outplayed. We’re getting outplayed, we’re getting outhustled and that’s where the discrepancy is coming in with the points.”
Feature Photo: Dutch Fork forward Justus Bell.
Photos by Thomas Grant Jr.
