Benton’s trey |
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By DAN BISER ROCKY POINT - After having playing “catch-up” most of the way on Tuesday, the South Columbus Stallions gained their first lead against the host Heide Trask Titans early in the fourth quarter. But after the Titans had regained the lead 64-62 on a pair of foul shots by Kendall London with 10 seconds remaining, SCHS coach Nathan Faulk called a time-out to set up a final score. “When you’re on the road, you play for the two-point shot and try to get to overtime, and that’s what we wanted to do mainly and take the three if nothing is open underneath,” Faulk said following the game. So when play resumed, junior reserve guard Shaun Benton got a clear look at the basket with three seconds left and arched a shot from beyond the 3-point arc. The shot ripped the net with just over a second remaining to gain the SCHS victory. “The play was to look for Derrick (Clay) underneath or knock it over to Bryant (Edwards), but my shot was wide open,” he said. “I knew I had to make it.” The game-winning bucket gave the Stallions their second straight road win in the Waccamaw 1A-2A Conference and put their conference record at 4-2 and season mark at 9-5. Edwards had another big night for the Stallions, scoring 26 points and dishing out nine assists. South Columbus trailed 35-27 at the half after trailing by as much as 12 in the second quarter. “We didn’t play a good first half,” Faulk said. “Trask has a lot of good athletes, a lot of depth and are a tough team to match up with, but we just didn’t do a good job of taking care of the ball. We didn’t play very smart early on.” There was also the fact that starting forward Frederick Bryant played in foul trouble from the game’s opening minutes and fouled out in the fourth quarter. “We stayed with it,” Faulk said. “We forced a couple of big turnovers in the fourth quarter and Bryant hit a couple of big threes for us. Derrick Clay started taking control under the boards also and Justin Duncan played hard down the stretch. “Shaun’s shot was not one of our major options at the end, but he hit it, so what can you say?” “This game emphasizes a team effort,” Faulk added, “You need that more than anything if you expect to win consistently on the road.” Clay and Duncan each scored 10 points for the Stallions, who took a brief 4-3 lead in the game’s opening moments and did not lead again until a 3-point shot by Edwards put SCHS up 52-50 with just over six minutes left in the game. Kimani Hill scored 23 points to lead Trask, which lost its second straight conference home game on a final second shot. Last Friday, the Titans dropped a one-point loss to South Brunswick on a 3-point shot right before the buzzer. South Columbus won the girls game 56-30 with Johnna Williams scoring 15 points for the Lady Stallions. Williams got all her points on five 3-point shots as SCHS put its conference record at 4-2. Amanda Dowe had 14 points. South Columbus played host to West Brunswick Wednesday and will entertain Whiteville on Friday. GIRLS GAME
BOYS GAME
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