By DAN BISER

VINEGAR HILL – Even though basketball has always been a big sport at East Columbus High School, the Gator boys team had always fallen short of the regular-season championship of the Waccamaw Conference ... until Friday night.

By holding off a strong second-half surge by the host South Columbus Stallions, the Gators came away with a 61-53 victory to claim the Waccamaw Conference in runaway style. The Gators moved their conference record to 9-0 while cinching at least a tie for the title with three games remaining.

“I’ve said from the start that this team doesn’t always win pretty but it goes out and gets the job done,” said ECHS coach Mark Bridgers, whose squad has a 14-5 record, including wins in its last 11 games. “We take them one game at a time and our guys have worked hard at pulling together and giving a strong team effort each night.”

South Columbus battled back from a 32-25 halftime deficit to take leads of 48-46 and 50-48 with less than five minutes left in the game.

But the Gators went on an 11-0 run over the next three minutes behind the backcourt play of Jerry Moore and Odell Hampton to pull away for the win.”

“South Columbus kept coming back at us and got the momentum early in the fourth quarter,” Bridgers said. “Fortunately, we had enough left to come back with a streak of our own.”

Moore scored a game-high 18 points while Hampton and Brandon Spears each scored 12.

South Columbus, which outscored the Gators 17-11 in the third quarter, got a 16-point effort by Brandon Keel.

Derrick Clay and Bryant Edwards each had nine points and had big hands in the Stallions’ second-half comeback surge.

It was fifth straight loss for the Stallions, who slipped to 3-5 in the conference and 6-9 overall.

SCHS coach Nathan Faulk said his team gave a strong effort but emphasized that his Stallions are still young and rebuilding from last season’s 1-21 season.

“We’re just not quite there yet in some areas but we are making headway,” he said. “We just have to keep working to get better and keep battling every night we take the floor.”

East Columbus won the girls game 65-38 to move to 6-3 in the conference and 14-5 overall. Coach Karlyn Stephens’ Lady Gators are now tied with Pender for second place in the conference standings following Pender’s overtime loss to North Brunswick Friday.

Angelica Moore had 15 points and T.T. Bennett had 14 for East Columbus. Candra Powell got all of her points on 8-of-8 shooting from the foul line. The Lady Gators led 32-20 at the half. Nine players had a hand in the ECHS scoring.

Center Amanda Dowe scored 14 points for South Columbus.

The South Columbus girls team now has a 2-6 conference record and a 3-12 season record.

South Columbus will entertain Pender on Tuesday.

GIRLS GAME

EAST COLUMBUS (65): Moore 15, Powell 8, Bress 3, Young 7, Bennett 4, Webb 8, Allen 2, Malpass 6, Lennon 2.

SOUTH COLUMBUS (38): Jordan 1, Graham 5, Long 2, Dowe 14, Smith 1, Holden 9, McCoy 3, Tisdale 3.

BOYS GAME

EAST COLUMBUS (61): Moore 18, Patrick 8, Hampton 12, Spears 12, Graham 2, Baldwin 5, Freeman 2, Waddell 2.

SOUTH COLUMBUS (53): Edwards 9, J. Vereen 7, D. Vereen 4, Clay 9, Keel 16, Fipps 8.