By Thomas Grant Jr.
Suffering a season-ending overtime home defeat to an archrival before the playoffs would seem like a negative.
Instead, the Irmo boys basketball team brought the positives from the loss to Dutch Fork into Tuesday’s first-round matchup with Socastee.
This time, the Yellow Jackets relentless effort paid off in a 75-50 win over Socastee. It was their first post-season win since the Class 4A championship game in 2023 and first under new head coach Alex Quillen.
“I thought our guys played super hard in that game which kind of gave us the carryover into this,” he said. “I told him ‘Look guys, this is a rivalry game with Dutch Fork. We want to win it, but you guys battled and battled and battled. That’s what we’ve got to do in the playoffs.’”
Irmo took control of the game early in the first half. Their trapping defense forced turnovers which led to quick points, particularly in the second quarter when it used a 16-0 run to take a 35-12 advantage.
Providing points from both inside and outside were Jeremy Anderson. He led the Yellow Jackets with 17 points and Quillen believes he’s one of the best players in Region 4-5A when he’s comfortable.
“He kind of had a nagging ankle injury throughout the year,” Quillen said. “I think he’s fully healthy now. He’s going to be our guy. We can’t win without him producing like he did tonight.”
All-State guard Brandon Sams helped rally the Braves as it answered with a 12-1 run to get within 36-24 at halftime. Sams scored 11 of his game-high 25 points in the second quarter.
“(Sams) is a heck of a player,” Quillen said. “He is a stud offensive player and he can go on a 12-0 run himself. So we kind of tried to prevent that from happening. He got loose a couple of times there and made a couple of shots. But we keep telling our guys if they make a run, we’re going to go on ours eventually. We kind of hang our hat on defense to try to finish the game out.”
Irmo opened the second half with an 11-0 run to open up a 47-24 advantage. Socastee answered with a similar run and got within 52-39 at the end of the fourth quarter.
The Yellow Jackets turned the game into an “And-1” drill. Players like Christian Brown, who finished with 13, Antwoine Pierce who had 11 points, Matthew Hopkins who finished with 10 points and Jaden Rivers who added eight points, were fouled in the process of scoring layups.
Irmo increased its lead as many as 28 points in the final minutes. The Yellow Jackets now travel to Berkeley Friday for the second-round matchup.
“They’re a very good team,” said Quillen about the Stags. “I kind of started kind of watching a little film on them today. They’re a very good team. But I think our defense is very unique to teams that haven’t played us before and I think we run it very well and I think that gives us a chance to win the game.”
On Monday, the 2024-25 season ended for the Irmo girls basketball team. It was defeated 53-42 by Lucy Beckham and finished the season with an 11-14 record.
The season also ended for River Bluff who were defeated 74-57 at Rock Hill.
Feature photo by Thomas Grant Jr. – Irmo forward Oshon Browman looks to defend Socastee guard Brandon Sams.
