By DAN BISER

LAKE WACCAMAW – Have you ever been up to your nose in alligators?

That’s how the Whiteville Wolfpack must have felt during the second quarter Friday night when it saw its 23-14 lead quickly evaporate into a 35-23 East Columbus Gator advantage in just over three minutes of the Waccamaw Conference Basketball Tournament championship game.

The huge Gator explosion, that led to a 31-point second-quarter output, propelled the host East Columbus team to a 73-63 victory over the Wolfpack for its first conference tournament championship since 1994.

The conference tournament title goes along with the Gators’ Waccamaw Conference regular-season championship.

East Columbus, which led 45-28 at the half, now holds a 19-5 season record, including a 17-game winning streak and a 14-0 mark against Waccamaw Conference opponents.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am of this team,” said ECHS coach Mark Little after he had been doused by a giant cooler of ice in the team’s dressing room “Our guys really laid it on the line tonight. You can’t expect to beat a team like Whiteville three times in one season, but our guys went after it and did it.”

For WHS coach Glenn McKoy, it was not the way that he would choose to close out his 27-year coaching career against Waccamaw Conference competition, but he was nothing but complimentary of the Gator effort.

“They brought an incredible amount of energy to this game,” said McKoy, whose squad slipped to 14-9 after playing in the Waccamaw Conference Tournament final for the fifth straight season. “They made good passes, took good shots and were all over the boards. When the ball went on the floor, they went after it hard… it was as good a team effort as I have seen all year.

“We’re disappointed that we didn’t play better than we did because we felt this was a game we could win,” McKoy said. “But that doesn’t take away from the way East Columbus played tonight.”

Whiteville had suffered a five-point loss and a buzzer-beating one-point loss to the Gators in regular-season play.

East Columbus will carry the conference’s top 1A seed into this week’s state playoffs and Whiteville will carry the conference’s top 2A seed.

The Gators rode a balanced offensive attack as B.J. Patrick tallied 19 points and Jerry Moore hit 17, including four key 3-point baskets. Power forward Jim Freeman came off the bench to score 14 points and Cameron Spears had 10. Guard Odell Hampton helped ignite the Gator transition game with several impressive passes and moves to the basket.

“Everyone on the team understands their role and what they can contribute,” Coach Bridgers said. “That, I think, has become a major reason for the success.”

Whiteville managed to keep the score respectable in the second half behind the 3-point shooting of Marcel Williams and Aaron Clark. Williams canned seven 3-pointers to finish with 26 points. Clark had 11 points, including three 3-pointers, and D.J. Anders scored 10. Whiteville managed to draw within eight points in the second half as East Columbus managed on seven third-quarter points, but the Wolfpack could get no closer.

East Columbus last won the Waccamaw Conference Tournament in 1994 when it was paced by Senegal exchange student Boubacar Aw. Coach Gary Battle’s Gators defeated regular-season champion Whiteville 55-51 at the WHS gym. Aw went to on to play four seasons at Georgetown University and continues to play pro basketball overseas.

Whiteville has played in eight of the last nine Waccamaw Conference Tournament championship games, winning five.

Coach McKoy will take his Wolfpack into the state playoffs for the final time this week with a career record of 536 wins and 156 losses.

WHITEVILLE (63): Williams 26, Grant 6, Anders 10, Mahoney 3, Clark 11, Jordan 3, Roland 5.

EAST COLUMBUS (73): Blue 1, Moore 17, Patrick 19, Hampton 6, Spears 10, Freeman 12, Davis 2, Waddell 4.