Falcons roll past Lakewood

DARLINGTON — Lakewood’s girls basketball team knew it was running into a challenge Tuesday night when the Gators faced Darlington’s high-powered offense.

They didn’t run into a challenge, but a buzzsaw instead. Darlington exploded to a huge first-quarter lead and never looked back in a 60-23 victory that wasn’t as close as the score indicated.

“(Darlington coach Brian Rozelle) has a tremendous team,” Lakewood coach Terrence Scriven said. “We knew what we had to do against them, but we couldn’t stop them.“

The 37-point win improved the Falcons to 13-1 overall and 2-0 in Region 6-3A.

Still, Rozelle was anything but satisfied with his team’s play.

“We didn’t play well tonight. We didn’t get up for this game,” he said. “If we had gotten up for this game the way we did Friday night (against Marlboro County), we’d have scored 90 points.”

Rozelle was proud of his Falcons’ defensive effort, however.

“We held them to 23 points. When you can do that, you’re playing pretty well,” he said. “That means we did something right.“

The Falcons came out of the gate firing on all cylinders. Darlington’s relentless defense turned into instant offense on the way to holding a 22-5 lead after one quarter.

“We had a game plan, but we got confused at times with it,” Scriven said. “You can’t miss easy layups and free throws against a team like Darlington and expect to win.

“We’ll go back to the drawing board, work hard and get ready for Marlboro County at home on Friday.”

Darlington had its chances to increase its lead in the second, but the Falcons misfired on several shot opportunities inside the paint.

So the Falcons went outside. Kierra Patterson and Kentesha James each nailed 3-pointers in the period as Darlington carried a 35-14 advantage into halftime.

Antionette McPhail finished with a game-high 15 points for Darlington. Jazz Green added 12 points, and Patterson 11. Even with three scorers in double figures, their overall performance was less than stellar against the Gators.

“Our starting five committed 24 turnovers tonight,” Rozelle said. “We can’t do that and expect to win the region."

Kaneya Dumas and Alexis Smith posted eight and seven points, respectively, for Lakewood (8-8, 0-2).

Boys

Lakewood 71, Darlington 67

For the second straight game, the home fans watched the Falcons carry a lead into the final period only to go home unhappy.

Trailing 60-59, A.J. Bracey’s 3-pointer with 1:22 remaining gave the Gators a lead they never lost.

“It’s definitely a disappointing performance,” Falcons coach Ken Howle said. “We definitely cheated our fans tonight.

“Lakewood played great defense against us, and they should get credit for that."

Calvin Hudson led Lakewood with 17 points, while Jamikal Harris had 15 and Eldren Keys added 11.

Bracey finished with seven points for Lakewood (8-8 overall, 1-1 in region).

“In order to win, we had to fix it up and play the way we know how to play,” Gators coach Ron McBride said. “(Darlington) is a very tough place to play.

“We wanted to get as many wins as possible on the road.”

Mired in foul trouble for most of the game, Donnie James finished with 17 points for Darlington (7-4, 0-2). David Lighty had 13, Bradley Knox 12 and Trea Sheik 11.