By Thomas Grant Jr.
The Irmo basketball teams used the holiday break to maintain their competitive focus.
In the case of the Yellow Jackets, the end result was a championship trophy at its inaugural Big Red Box Holiday Invitational.
The 3-night tournament featured eight teams.
Irmo opened with a 53-41 win over Lakewood. Christian Brown had 13 points on his way to Most Outstanding Player honors at the tournament and Oshon Browman finished with 12.
The semifinal matchup with Catawba Ridge saw the Yellow Jackets trail as many as 11 points. Irmo employed its fullcourt defense to force turnovers and allowed it to get within two points with three minutes left.
The Copperheads led 49-44 with 1:55 left when Brown scored five straight points to tie the game with 24 seconds left. It went into overtime where both teams managed just one field goal for 4 minutes and 57.3 seconds.
With 2.7 seconds left, Brown caught the inbound pass from All-Tournament selection Tanner McCray near the Irmo bench. He calmly swished in the game-winning 3-pointer for the 54-51 victory. He finished with 20 points.
The final against Westside proved anti-dramatic for the Yellow Jackets. After trailing 17-15 at the end of the first quarter, Irmo took a one-point lead at halftime.
It then outscored the Rams 15-7 in the third quarter to take 43-34 lead. Irmo pulled away in the fourth quarter for the 61-47 win to improve to 11-2 on the second.
Khiry White led Irmo with 22 points and 12 rebounds. Brown closed out the tournament with 18 points, followed by McCray with 11 and Browman with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Photos from Irmo High School – Irmo basketball team
