Wolfpack boys, Stallion girls
win conference hoop openers

South Columbus forward Mark Alan Wright (left) looks to make an outlet pass after controlling a rebound in Tuesday night’s Waccamaw Conference basketball game with host Whiteville Wolfpack. Whiteville’s Sprandon Mahoney, who was the game’s top scorer with 22 points, defends on the play. Whiteville won 64-55 to put its season record at 5-3.

Whiteville forward Nur Abdullah delivers a dunk in the Wolfpack’s 64-55 win over South Columbus Tuesday night.

By DAN BISER
Sports Editor

The Whiteville High boys basketball team managed to battle its way around numerous fouls and turnovers Tuesday night as it opened Waccamaw Conference basketball action with a 64-55 victory over the visiting South Columbus Stallions.

In the girls game, South Columbus junior center Amanda Dowe dominated play at both ends of the court to lead the Lady Stallions to a 43-26 win.

WHS boys coach Kenzil McCall said he was pleased that his team came away with the win, but that it continued to have the nagging problems of inconsistency.

“Too many unnecessary fouls, too many unforced turnovers,” McCall said. “It’s the fundamentals where we’re really hurting ourselves now.

“A lot of the time, we’re not setting ourselves up for good shots,” McCall added. “We’re putting up a lot of 3’s now, but we’re not hitting many of them.”

Whiteville led 14-7 at the end of the first quarter, and managed to hold the lead 29-28 at the half on a final-second bucket by Sprandon Mahoney.

Whiteville never relinquished the lead in the second half even though South Columbus made several strong runs.
Mahoney scored 22 points and ignited an 8-0 surge midway through the fourth quarter that helped the Wolfpack wrap up the win.

Nur Abdullah added 11 points for the Wolfpack, which put its season record at 5-3. Nine WHS players figured in the scoring.

Bryant Edwards, who is still nursing a shoulder injury suffered last week at Fairmont, and Derrick Clay each scored 14 points for South Columbus, and Frederick Bryant scored 13.

South Columbus, which got a late start on its basketball season after the Stallion football team marched to the state finals, saw its record drop to 1-3.

“We had a couple of lapses in each half that hurt us,” said SCHS coach Nathan Faulk, whose team was playing without starter D.J. Stephens. “We had trouble getting some shots to fall, but I think we’re getting better.

The South Columbus girls team evened it record at 2-2 behind a 27-point effort by Dowe.

Dowe paced her team to a 31-13 halftime lead and scored all 12 of her team’s second half points.

Kelly Strickland helped get Coach Brett Burroughs’ Lady Stallions off to a 13-0 start in the opening minutes and finished with 10 points.

It was the SCHS girls’ first win over Whiteville since the 2001-02 season.

Sarah Gore led Whiteville scorers with 12 points. The loss dropped the three-time defending Waccamaw Conference champion Lady Wolfpack’s season record to 1-7.

South Columbus played Wednesday night at Loris, and it will take on host East Columbus in both the boys and girls divisions in the opening round of the ECHS Christmas Tournament set for Dec. 26-27.

The Whiteville teams will take on host Wallace-Rose Hill in both boys and girls division of the WRH Bulldog Christmas Shoot-Out at Dec. 27-28 at Teachey.

GIRLS GAME

SOUTH COLUMBUS (43): Strickland 10, Dowe 27, Drayton 2, Newman 2, Williams 2.

WHITEVILLE (26): Gore 12, Westberg 2, Manning 2, Evans 4. Watts 2. Worley 2.

BOYS GAME

SOUTH COLUMBUS (55): Edwards 14, Wright 6, J. Bryant 2, Duncan 6, Clay 14, D. Bryant 13.

WHITEVILLE (26): Clark 7, Phillips 2, Godfrey 2, Davis 1, Mahoney 22, Abdullah 11, South 6, McCullon 9, Batten 4.