E. Columbus girls cruise
to opening-round victory

LAKE WACCAMAW – Host East Columbus, South Brunswick and Pender came away with wins Monday in opening round girls action of the Waccamaw 1A-2A Conference basketball tournament.
Fourth-seeded South Brunswick opened the evening’s action with a 55-40 win over fifth-seeded South Columbus, third-seeded East Columbus bumped North Brunswick 60-33 and second-seeded Pender drubbed Trask 72-36.
East Columbus will take on Pender today at 6 p.m. in girls sem-final action.

East Columbus 60
N. Brunswick 33
T.T. Bennett’s 15 points lead the way for East Columbus which held a 35-16 halftime advantage. Tabitha Moore tallied 13 points and Brianna Jacobs scored 11 for Coach Karlyn Stephens’ Lady Gators, who put their season record at 14-10 while taking their third win of the season over North Brunswick’s Lady Scorpions.
Ashley Robbins scored 13 in North Brunswick’s season closing loss.

NORTH BRUNSWICK (33): Mitchell 6, Robbins 13, Graham 7, Harrison 3, Graham 4

EAST COLUMBUS (60): Bennett 15, Young 9, Jacobs 11, Bracey 5, Moore 13, Lennon 2, Jenkins 1, Bryant 4.

South Brunswick 55
South Columbus 40

South Columbus, which had defeated South Brunswick in their previous encounter, got 15 points each from Amanda Dowe and Yoldanda McCoy, but it still wasn’t enough as South Brunswick countered with the scoring duo of Jackie Burghoffer and Christina Deveney.

Burghoffer and Deveney each scored 17 points for South Brunswick, which advanced to Wednesday’s semi-final game against top-seeded Whiteville.

The South Columbus girls, now carrying an 8-15 record, will open play in the state 2A playoffs on Feb. 20 when they travel to take on Southeastern Conference champion Red Springs.

SOUTH COLUMBUS (40): Strickland 5, McCoy 15, Dowe 15, Williams 1, Shaw 3, Tisdale 1.

SOUTH BRUNSWICK (55): Adams 7, Spivey 2, Burghoffer 17, Deveney 17, Green 6, Ferguson 6.