FLORENCE - The Sumter High School varsity boys basketball team clinched second place in Region VI-4A with a 46-29 victory over West Florence on Tuesday at the West Florence gymnasium.
The Gamecocks, who improved to 19-4 overall and 7-2 in Region VI-4A, were led by Eren Moses with 15 points. Shaheed Robinson added 12.
Tyshawn McDuffie led West Florence with 15 points.
Sumter will play host to region champion Hartsville on Friday.
Keith Gedamke / The Item Sumter's David Henderson (21) goes to the basket as Crestwood's Xavier Bolden defends on Tuesday. The Gamecocks cruised to a 67-29 win.
Sumter High School started the varsity boys basketball game with an alley-oop dunk and never looked back against Crestwood.
The Gamecocks weren't a well-oiled machine, but never struggled as they cruised to a 57-28 win at the Castle on Tuesday.
SHS improved to 12-2 on the season while Crestwood dropped to 4-8.
There is no doubt that this team has potential, said SHS head coach Nathan Livesay, whose team won the first meeting between the two teams 57-28 on Dec. 12. There's a lot of physical talent and a lot of potential. We're still young and inexperienced. In our top eight, we've got two seniors.
I like what this team has a chance to do, he added. What I'm really excited about is that we've got five practices in a row with everybody before we play South Florence (on Tuesday). That's the first time all year that we've had mostly everybody together and we can go to practice for a solid week and we can try to fix some of the inconsistencies that we've been having.
On the first possession of the game, Kameron Dunnican received a pass at the elbow before passing back to D.J. Coleman. Coleman then tossed a perfectly placed pass for Dunnican to slam home and the Gamecocks led 2-0.
It's nice to have guys that can do that, said Livesay. When you've got as good of a passer as D.J. and a kid as athletic as Kameron, it would be kind of silly to not take advantage of that. We were fortunate enough to take advantage of it on the first play of the game. It kind of set the tone for the kind of intensity we were going to play with.
Sumter took a 19-6 lead after the first stanza. The Gamecocks led 30-13 at the half before taking a 51-20 lead into the final quarter.
Crestwood's starting lineup consisted of two freshmen (Garion Williams, Seth Fitzgerald), two sophomores (Kalum McIntyre, Reginald Bradford) and a senior (Kevin Bennett.
We're trying to find that nucleus, said Crestwood head coach Dwayne Edwards. We're a little young. Just trying to give the kids an opportunity to see if they're ready to play or not. We're going through a little rebuilding stage, but they've got to be ready to play.
We knew we'd take some bumps this year, but there is a lot of room for improvement, he added. You hope the kids can keep their confidence. That's more of a concern than anything.
Livesay commented on his team's depth and pointed to the fact that 12 Gamecocks scored and Eren Moses led with just 11 points. David Henderson was next with 10 points.
You always want to be a little better than you are, he said. I think we'll be able to tell a little better where we are on Tuesday. We'll be on the road against a veteran team with five days of practice. I think we'll get a pretty good gauge based on that.
It doesn't gett any easier for Crestwood. The Knights will travel to defending 3A state champion Camden on Friday to open Region V-3A play.
The young kids have a good attitude about it and still think it's a lot of fun, said Edwards. The attitude is there. They're young and are going to make mistakes, but I think they go out there and give me all that they have. I can live with that.
COLUMBIA Sumter High Schools varsity boys basketball team had six players score in double figures in the Gamecocks 84-71 victory over Spring Valley on Monday at the Spring Valley gymnasium.
Brandon Bolden led the Gamecocks, who are 6-0 on the season, with 15 points. Timmy Rogers and David Henderson each scored 13 points while Kameron Dunnican, Eren Moses and Shaheed Robinson each had 12.
Spring Valleys Russell McCray led all scorers with 21 points. Jonathan Garrett added 19 and Darron Jackson had 10.
Item file photo Sumter's Kameron Dunnican returns for the Sumter Gamecocks this year. SHS will open the season today against Manning.
The Sumter High School varsity boys basketball team lost four starters from a 17-7 team that won the Region VI-4A title and advanced to the second round of the state playoffs.
While some may look at this as a rebuilding effort, Gamecocks head coach Nathan Livesay doesn't see it that way. He has great expectations for the team.
We're really excited about this group, said Livesay, whose team opens its season today at home against Manning. We've only got four seniors on the team, so we're excited about the potential this team has.
We lost some great players in Stephen Curtis, who chose not to play basketball this season, Travis (Fredimon), Quinn (McClendon), Khalil (Malone) and Stephon (McBride), Livesay added. We like what we have back though; we feel like we have some players who really have a lot of talent.
The lone returning starter is junior guard D.J . Coleman. While he was a sophomore playing with a group of seniors, Livesay expects Coleman to be the player the rest of the team follows.
We're counting on D.J. to lead us and to have a big year, Livesay said.
Senior Timmy Rogers, a regular contributor last season, will also start in the backcourt. Who else will start could be a game-by-game decision, according to Livesay, but he likes the options he has to choose from.
Senior Michael James, juniors David Henderson and Quinnton Amos, sophomore Tre Woods and freshman Shaheed Robinson will be competing for starting time at the other wing.
Livesay has no idea who will start for him in the post, but he knows who will play. He also has possibly the tallest foursome in the school's history as well with four players who are 6 feet, 4 inches, to put in the paint. They are 6-foot-4 senior Eren Moses, 6-6 senior Marques Pair, 6-7 junior Kameron Dunnican and 6-8 sophomore Brandon Bolden.
All four of them are going to play every game, Livesay. I'm not sure which ones are going to start, but they all have the ability to get things done inside for us. They're all good, athletic type players.
Reach Sports Editor Dennis Brunson at dennisb@theitem.com or (803) 774-1241.
The frenetic early-season schedules and holiday tournaments are behind the Sumter High School varsity basketball teams, which tip off Region VI-4A play tonight against South Florence at the Sumter High gymnasium.
Sumter boys head coach Nathan Livesay summed up the situation after the Gamecocks’ 51-38 victory over county-rival Crestwood on Friday.
“The way South Carolina basketball is set up, these first 10 we’ve played don’t matter,” Livesay said. “Everybody’s 0-0, and we’ve got to go to work. The 10 that we’ll play now make a difference.”
Sumter improved to 7-3 with Friday’s win, avenging its only loss to an in-state team this season. The other losses came at the prestigious Arby’s Classic holiday tournament, where the Gamecocks went 1-2, falling to Krop Senior High, a 6A powerhouse from Miami, and Louisville Male, a top-10 team out of Kentucky.
The three losses were consecutive, however, with Crestwood providing a rude welcome back to South Carolina. Livesay said it was good to get that game back and head into region play with momentum.
“We’re playing better, so hopefully, we’ll just continue to play better than we did the night before,” Livesay said. “That’s our goal — to get better with every practice and with every game so that, at the end of the season, we’re playing our best basketball.
“We’ve made progress. We’re nowhere near where we want to be, but we’re getting close,” he said, adding that he thought the recent adversity would eventually help the team. “What you hope is that you develop some mental toughness by playing through injuries and schedule changes and things not going exactly the way you want. You learn how to have confidence in yourself and you learn mental toughness so you can put that into use when you get into tough situations that are going to happen in the region.”
Sumter has been as good as its core trio of players, Travis Fredimon, Quinn McClendon and Khalil Malone, but Livesay said the Gamecocks were getting contributions from more players.
“We’ve had a lot of guys make a couple of plays, and that’s what we want,” he said.
Sumter won the region last year with an 8-0 record. The Gamecocks will need two more wins than that this year to finish unbeaten, and will need to get them against a slate that Livesay said looks to be much improved.
“Hartsville is going to be a very good team again,” he said of the Red Foxes, which smoked Crestwood 70-41 last week. “Carolina Forest is new to our region and they’re very good. South Florence played us two 2-point games last year, and West Florence is always hard to play. Conway is much improved.
“The region slate is going to be pretty tough,” he said.
The Varsity Boys Basketball team avenged its earlier 50-49 loss to Crestwood by knocking off the Knights 51-38 at home on Saturday. The win capped a 4 game sweep for Sumter High School as the Girls Varsity Basketball team along with the JV Boys and Girls teams had already knocked off the Crestwood teams earlier in the day.
Though we got through the presidential election unscathed, Nathan Livesay called for a recount on Wednesday.
His concern wasn’t Obama and McCain. Rather, the Sumter High boys basketball coach wondered how his team is ranked No. 1 in the S.C. Basketball Coaches Association’s preseason Class 4A poll.
“We return three of 14 players,” Livesay said. “Now they are three pretty good players, but I think maybe the ballots were counted wrong.”
The Gamecocks went 24-6 last season, advancing to the Class 4A Lower State final where they lost 51-47 to eventual champion Summerville. Travis Fredimon scored 13 points in that game and he’s a noticeable returning player for Sumter.
The state’s coaches also released their top seniors list on Wednesday and the 6-foot-1 Fredimon is among the top five in Class 4A.
Livesay looks forward to getting Fredimon on the basketball court once Sumter’s football season is done. Fredimon plays wide receiver for the 9-2 Gamecocks and was named to the Dec. 13 North-South all-star game, which puts off basketball a little further.
Fredimon is one of eight Sumter basketball players who also plays football. That’s a big reason why Livesay is skeptical about the ranking now. But he’s hopefull for later in the season.
“It’s an honor for our program,” Livesay said. “A step in the right direction. I hope by January or February we are worthy of this honor and we end up right where we started.”
Chris Vandevander — a.k.a. Chris Mitchum — has been hired as the new varsity girls basketball coach at Sumter High School.
Vandevander, who was a star player for Sumter in the late 1980s and early '90s before going on to an outstanding collegiate career at Presbyterian College, has been the junior varsity coach for the past six years. She took that job at the same time Jeff Schaffer, who resigned the post in February to become the golf director at a Columbia golf course, took over the varsity program.
VANDEVANDER
"I'm just excited about this opportunity," said Vandevander, who graduated from SHS in 1992. "There is no where else I would rather coach than at Sumter High."
Vandevander, who coached at Alice Drive Middle School for three years before taking over the Sumter JV team, believes the fact that she has worked closely with Schaffer will make things easier as she and the players adjust to the new situation.
"The transition is going to be easier for both of us — me and the players," Vandevander said. "I've coached most of the girls who are returning. I think I've coached all but two of them who are returning on the varsity."
Sumter High athletic director Donna Bisom was Vandevander's head coach when she played for the Lady Gamecocks. Bisom said she was the right fit for the program.
"Chris is a home girl first of all, having played for Sumter High," Bisom said. "She was deadly from 3-point range. The fact that she's been working for us the past six years, that she knows the system, knows the kids, lives in the area and has a great reputation in the world of basketball makes her the best choice.
"How satisfying it is to be able to hire someone who played for you as a ninth-grader," Bisom added. "As I look back, Chris provided floor leadership, even as a freshman. She was always a student of the game, a coach on the court. She understood the timing of a timeout, the need for special plays that we worked on all the time and why we worked on fundamentals every single day."
The Lady Gamecocks were 98-56 under Schaffer, going 15-12 last season. While saying she hasn't had the opportunity to give it much thought, Vandevander doesn't expect too many changes in the program.
"Jeff's left the program in great shape," she said. "We started at the same time and he included me in a lot of decisions in the program and the direction in which it would go. I don't foresee a lot of changes."
While playing at Presbyterian, Vandevander was named to the All-South Atlantic Conference team her senior season and was the SAC Tournament Most Valuable Player as a junior to lead the Lady Blue Hose to their first ever SAC Tournament title. She holds the school record for most 3-point shots made in a career with 270 as well as the single season record of 83, set in 1995. (full story)
Keith Gedamke / The Item Sumter's Terrance Harris (15) shoots a jumper against Goose Creek's Joffery Ward (21) during the Gamecocks' 62-51 win in a 4A lower state semifinal game on Tuesday at the SHS gymnasium. Sumter will face Summerville on Friday for the lower state title.
Having lost four starters from a team that went out in the first round of the 4A boys basketball state playoffs last season, not many people expected the Sumter High School Gamecocks to be one of the best teams in the state this season. They were mistaken.
The Gamecocks will be playing for a spot in the state championship game on Friday after beating Goose Creek 62-51 in the lower state semifinals on Tuesday at the SHS gymnasium.
Sumter will face Summerville for the lower state title on Friday at 8:30 p.m. at The Citadel's McAlister Field House. Summerville beat Lower Richland 65-58 in the other semifinal game on Tuesday.
Chris Moore / The Item Sumter's Khalil Malone, middle, goes up for the game-winning layup between West Ashley's Nick Washington (11) and Kevin Bruce (32) in the Gamecocks' 64-58 win in the second round of the 4A state playoffs on Saturday. Malone was fouled on the play and hit a free throw, making it 60-58 with 30 seconds to go, and giving SHS the lead for good after it had trailed by 13 points early in the quarter.
Even as they trailed West Ashley High School 50-37 with just 6:41 remaining in their 4A boys basketball state playoff second-round game on Saturday, Sumter High's Khalil Malone and Stephon McBride were certain when the clock read triple zeroes that the Gamecocks would be victorious.
"We kept playing as hard as we could and I knew we'd win the game," Malone said. "We were the better team on the court, hands down."
"There was no doubt in my mind," McBride said.
McBride drained a couple of 3-point shots that sparked the SHS comeback and Malone converted a 3-point play with 30 seconds remaining that finished off the rally in the Gamecocks' 64-58 win at the Sumter High gymnasium.
The victory lifts Sumter into the lower state semifinals on Tuesday when it will play host to Goose Creek. Goose Creek nipped Dutch Fork 61-59 on a last-second shot in a second-round game on Saturday.
"Our guys really stepped up down the stretch," said Sumter head coach Nathan Livesay, whose team improved to 21-5 on the season. "We started making plays on defense in the fourth quarter and that made the difference. We kept playing hard and started creating opportunities with our defense."
SHS had led 19-7 early in the second quarter when the Wildcats, who finished the year with a 17-9 record, went to a 2-3 zone defense. Sumter began to struggle and West Ashley started to heat up. By the time the fourth quarter started, West Ashley was up 46-37 and baskets from Nick Washington and Mitchell Dixon pushed the lead to 13 and had it looking as though the Wildcats would return to Charleston as victors.
However, a trey from McBride and a layup off of a steal by Quinn McClendon had the lead down to 50-42 with 6:06 to go. Still, West Ashley was able to fight off that small rally and still led 55-46 with 3:55 to go.
The Wildcats couldn't resist Sumter's final push, however.
Matt Bethea, who led Sumter with 14 points, followed up his own miss to cut the lead to 55-48, and after Dixon missed two free throws, Bethea converted a 3-point play to make it 55-51. After a Wildcat miss, McBride drilled his fourth 3 of the game from the right corner to slice the lead to 55-54 with 2:20 remaining.
"Coach told me not to go out there and force my shots," said McBride, who finished with 12 points. "When I get my chance, I take my shot. I'm just playing basketball."
Two free throws from Washington, who led West Ashley with 23 points, made it 57-54 with 2:06 to go. McBride came up short on a 3 and Wildcat point guard C.J. Seay was fouled with 1:23 left. Seay, a 5-2 sophomore who came off the bench to jumpstart the West Ashley offense, missed both free throws. Terrance Harris buried a trey from the left of the key to tie the game with 1:08 left.
Washington hit a free throw with 47 seconds left to make it 58-57. Sumter, which had difficulty getting the ball inside against the packed-in 2-3, managed to get it into Malone. He was fouled while hitting a layup and added the free throw to put Sumter up 60-58 with 30 seconds to go.
"Khalil has really stepped up for us," Livesay said of Malone, who had 10 points. "He's had two of his best games in the playoffs."
Washington missed a chance to tie the game with 14 seconds left when his shot fell off the rim. A free throw from Brandon Wright made it 61-58 with 13 seconds left. Drew Dupre had a 3-pointer rim out five seconds to go and Sumter hit three of four free throws to close out the win.
"We just started missing some shots at the end that we had been hitting," said West Ashley head coach Ron Dupre. "We had some turnovers in the fourth quarter and we missed five or six free throws as well. That really hurt us down the stretch."
Sumter started using a 2-2-1 three-quarters court press and trap in the fourth quarter that seemed to slow down Seay and the Wildcat offense.
"As long as we could get in our halfcourt offense, we were pretty successful," Coach Dupre said. "The press forced us to make some decisions and we didn't always make the right decision."
"I think tonight was the best we've played the 2-2-1 all year," Livesay said.
West Ashley opened the game in man-to-man defense and Sumter took advantage of it, running out to its early double-digit advantage. However, when the Wildcats went to the zone, Sumter's offense went stale, scoring 18 points in a 15-minute stretch.
Meanwhile, West Ashley brought Seay off the bench to use his quickness against the Sumter defense and it worked. He was able to penetrate off the dribble and dish it to open players who were canning the shots.
"We felt like he could break their defense down," Coach Dupre said. "We felt like he could get in the lane and get them some open shots."
"We were trying not to double team (Seay) off the dribble and leave shooters open," Livesay said. "He was getting so deep though we had to do that. The first 24 minutes we couldn't guard the ball and we were letting them drive around us, but we played better later."
Drew Dupre added 11 for the Wildcats. All-State performer Kevin Bruce was limited to just five points thanks to foul trouble and Sumter's defense.
Reach Sports Editor Dennis Brunson at dennisb@theitem.com or (803) 774-1241.
The Sumter High School Gamecocks showed James Island something it hadn't seen all season on Wednesday in the first round of the 4A boys basketball state playoffs at the SHS gymnasium: a 2-3 matchup zone defense. Sumter had the Trojans out of sync offensively from the get-go, making it hard for them to get the ball into the hands of All-State wing Rashaad Richardson. The Gamecocks pushed out to a 34-17 halftime lead and were never headed as they picked up a 67-42 victory. Sumter, which picked up its 20th victory of the season against five losses, will play host to West Ashley on Saturday in the second round beginning at 7 p.m.
Keith Gedamke / The Item Sumter High's Stephon McBride (23) goes up for a shot between two West Florence players during their game on Tuesday. The Gamecocks won 67-35.
Sumter High School senior Gary Lowery stole a pass with just over five seconds left in the game around mid-court and broke for the basket. He had two West Florence defenders in front of him, but instead of taking the shot, he made a spin move around one and found senior Henry Watson wide open under the basket for a layup at the buzzer on Tuesday at the SHS gymnasium.
Although that buzzer beater made no difference whatsoever in the Gamecocks' 67-35 domination of West Florence on Senior Night, it epitomized the new Region VI-4A champions.
With the win, Sumter improved to 18-5 overall and 7-0 in the region and clinched the region title outright.
For much of Tuesday's varsity boys basketball game between Sumter High School and Hartsville at the Sumter High gymnasium, it looked as if Sumter was on the way to a very convincing blowout of the Red Foxes. Hartsville made a game of it late in the second half, but the Gamecocks held on for an 80-66 win to take control of the Region VI-4A race.
It's not enough to say the Sumter High School varsity boys basketball team controlled the flow of Friday's game against Spring Valley from start to finish. That leaves out that the Gamecocks came about as close as they could get to playing themselves out of the game.
Instead, Sumter put together a furious fourth-quarter rally to take a lead over the Vikings, but then lost it and had to go to overtime to get a 73-69 win over Spring Valley on Tuesday at the Sumter High gymnasium. Sumter improved to 4-1 with the win and will try to avenge a heartbreaking, early-season 54-52 loss to Crestwood on Friday when they host the Knights.
"We made enough plays to win the game a couple of times, but we made the plays to lose the game a couple of times," said Sumter head coach Nathan Livesay. "That's why we were down 10 in the fourth quarter and up five in the fourth quarter, and both of those leads evaporated. We did a great job coming back, but we've got to do a better job finishing out the game.
"Defensively, at crunch-time, we were terrible," he added. "We would not guard the basketball — they got whatever they wanted whenever they wanted it, and we were fortunate that at the very end of the game, we picked up our effort rebounding and that saved us."
Sumter jumped out to a 13-8 lead in the first quarter on the strength of five points in the period by Matt Bethea, but junior forward Quinn McClendon had three fouls before Spring Valley scored its first point and watched the remainder of the half from the bench. Bethea, who finished with 18 points, got five more in the second period, after Travis Fredimon and Khalil Malone staked the Gamecocks to a 17-8 lead.
The Vikings got seven second-quarter points from Charles Lang, however, and cut into the Sumter lead until they trailed only 28-27 at halftime. Lang led the Spring Valley attack, posting a double-double with 18 points — including 10-of-12 free throws — and 10 rebounds, while Jamil Jones added 11 and Martin Simms contributed 10.
Spring Valley turned up the pressure in the third quarter and Sumter began to come unglued. Lang gave the Vikings a 35-30 lead when he went strong to the basket, drawing a foul. Before he shot the free throw, however, McClendon was whistled for a technical foul — his fourth personal foul — and went to the bench again.
Lang missed the opportunity to complete the 3-point play, but the Vikings' Ronald Zimmerman hit both free throws on the technical, putting Spring Valley up 37-30. With emotions running high on both sides, Bethea buried a 3-point basket that seemed to jolt the Gamecocks back to life.
Spring Valley was able to get three easy baskets, stretching the lead to 10, before Sumter was able to close to within seven at 45-38 heading into the final period.
Back on the court, McClendon went to the basket and saddled the Vikings' big man Trey Duncan with his fourth personal foul. McClendon, who had 11 of his game-high 24 points in the final period of regulation, finished the 3-point play and cut the Spring Valley lead to 49-43.
Malone hit a driving layup to cut the lead to four at 49-43, and after the Vikings hit a free throw, McClendon got an assist from Fredimon and cut it to 50-47. The Vikings turned the ball over, and after a Sumter miss, McClendon got the offensive rebound and put it back up to cut the lead to one at 50-49.
Lang turned the ball over, however, and Sumter's Taijon Scarborough grabbed another offensive rebound and dished to Malone who gave Sumter the lead for the first time in the half at 51-50 with three minutes remaining in regulation. Sumter stretched the lead to three on another McClendon basket and a great move to the basket by Scarborough put Sumter up by five with 1:50 remaining.
Spring Valley wasn't quite dead, however, as Jamil Jones buried a 3-pointer to tie it at 55 after Lang hit a pair of free throws. The teams traded turnovers before Spring Valley regained the lead on a layup by Simms. Sumter's Malone fouled out, as Fredimon already had done, but Zimmerman missed both free throws, and the Vikings fouled Bethea.
Bethea hit the first free throw and missed the second, but McClendon was on the spot and gave Sumter a 58-57 lead on the putback. Bethea hit another free throw to put Sumter up by a basket at 59-57, but Zimmerman tied it at 59-59 on a layup with four seconds remaining, and the teams headed to overtime.
In the extra period, Spring Valley took a 64-63 lead on a 3-pointer by Jones, but Sumter's Terrance Harris tied it at 64-64 with a free throw. After a Spring Valley turnover, a series of fortuitous tips by McClendon helped Sumter get the ball down court, and the Gamecocks took a 66-64 lead on a basket by Bethea. McClendon grabbed another offensive rebound after Bethea missed a pair of free throws and gave Sumter a 4-point lead. McClendon got a block at the other end and Bethea added another free throw to make it 69-64 with 1:18 remaining. A blocked shot by Bethea led to a McClendon layup and after another blocked shot, this one by J.D. Fulwood, Sumter sealed it with a pair of free throws.
Livesay was pleased with the way McClendon responded after drawing the technical foul.
"He did a great job of playing with four fouls, and he did an excellent job of finishing plays at the end of the game," Livesay said. "He bailed us out on several different plays and did a good job of finishing inside.
"We overcame Travis (Fredimon) fouling out, we overcame Khalil fouling out," Livesay added. "We did a lot of good things, but we've got to learn to play for 32 minutes."
