By DAN BISER
Sports Editor

The Whiteville High girls basketball team assured itself of a third straight outright Waccamaw 1A-2A Conference championship and a fifth consecutive 20-win season Friday with a 50-25 victory over visiting South Columbus.

In the boys game, Whiteville closed its most difficult regular-season showing since 1979 by coming away with a 68-54 victory over the Stallions to salvage a fifth-place finish in the conference standings.

The wins came during the Whiteville’s Senior Night recognition.

Coach Dudley Revels’ Whiteville girls closed their regular-season schedule with a 20-2 record, including an 11-1 mark in conference play. The Lady Wolfpack, which will be out to claim its fifth consecutive Waccamaw Conference Tournament championship this week, welcomed the return of senior guard Talena Faison to the starting line-up.

Faison, who missed five games due to an ankle injury, scored a game-high 17 points for the Lady Wolfpack, which led 26-13 at halftime. Paige McCallum scored 13.

Amanda Dowe scored 13 points to lead South Columbus scorers.

The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for the SCHS girls, who finished conference play with a 4-8 fifth-place record. Coach Brett Burroughs’ Lady Stallions are 8-14 overall.

The boys game featured a 12-0 run by Whiteville and 15-2 run by South Columbus, both in the first half. Whiteville held a 28-24 halftime lead and held off several Stallion surges in the second half.

Whiteville got a strong shooting night from Sprandon Mahoney, who hit four timely 3-point shots and finished with 18 points. South Columbus retaliated with guard Bryant Edwards, who connected on six 3-pointers and tallied a game-high 21 points. Edwards’ dead-eye shooting kept the Stallions in striking distance until the final moments.

Nur Abdullah had 12 points, including a pair of thunderous dunks. Justin Livingston added 10 for Coach Tyrone Frink’s Wolfpack, which finished 4-8 in the conference and stand at 6-14 overall.

“We’ve played well at times this season, but we haven’t been very consistent,” Frink said. “We were in position to win a lot of games we lost this season. Tonight was probably the best job we have done finishing all season.”

Romaine Vereen joined Edwards in double figures for South Columbus, finishing with nine points.

The Stallions of Coach Nathan Faulk finished conference play with a 2-10 record and have a 5-17 season mark.

Faulk said that more than a half-dozen close losses in conference play, including two in double-overtime, added to the Stallion frustration this season.

“We couldn’t quite get there in several games, and that seemed to work on our confidence some,” Faulk said. “The effort has been there from the start, but things haven’t added up to the type season we had hoped for.”

The South Columbus girls team will take on South Brunswick today at 4:30 in the opening round of the Waccamaw Conference Tournament. The winner of that game will take on Whiteville Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the tournament semi-finals. Whiteville has a firsts-round bye.

In Tuesday’s first-round boys tournament action at East Columbus, Whiteville will take on Pender at 4:30 p.m., and South Columbus will tangle with South Brunswick. at 8 p.m.

GIRLS GAME

SOUTH COLUMBUS (25): Strickland 2, McCoy 4, Dowe 13, Long 3, Williams 1, Tisdale 2.

WHITEVILLE (50): Gore 7, Turner 5, Williams 4, Faison 17, McCallum 13, Baldwin 4.

BOYS GAME

SOUTH COLUMBUS (54): Edwards 21, R. Vereen 10, Bryant 9, Keel 8, Clay 6.

WHITEVILLE (68): Mahoney 18, Abdullah 12, Livingston 10, Best 8, Royal 8, Clark 7, South 3, Grant 2.