Darlington stays unbeaten in rout of Wilson

DARLINGTON — With a Region 6-3A title firmly in hand, some might have thought the Darlington Falcons would let off the accelerator a little bit in their home finale against Wilson.

Not a chance.

Jordan Scott and Devin Joint turned a rivalry game into their personal dunk competition as the Falcons improved to 20-0 with an 80-61 victory over the Tigers in boys basketball Friday night.

Joint and Scott each finished with 18 points to lead the Falcons, who are 9-0 in region play. Elijah Byrd added 13 points, and Torey Wright scored 10.

“I wasn’t expecting (20 wins), but I knew we would be pretty good,” Scott said. “All we have to do is keep up our hard work.”

“(Wilson coach DeAndre Scott) has a young team, and our experience prevailed a little bit,” Darlington coach Ken Howle said. “I liked the way we played defense tonight.”

Early in the second quarter, the Falcons came out of the gate firing on all cylinders. High-pressure defense forced Wilson turnovers, which led to easy baskets.

“From the second quarter on, we had a lot of kids in foul trouble and we had to go deep into our bench,” coach Scott said. “Darlington has a deeper bench than us, so once they got that big lead, we couldn’t catch up.”

Scott and Joint capitalized on those miscues with a pair of thunderous dunks, sending the capacity crowd into a frenzy as Darlington raced into the locker room with a 41-22 halftime advantage.

“All we needed to do was come out and play,” Joint said. “If we could have a good first half, we would be on our way.”

“Defensively, we pressure the whole time and get in somebody’s grill,” Jordan said. “When we steal the ball, we look to push the ball and get easy layups.”

Howle heaped nothing but superlatives on his scoring duo, as well as his entire team’s defense.

“(Joint and Scott) are both very talented players,” he said. “We haven’t been getting those loose balls lately, but our defense was extremely tough tonight.”

Jared Charles, Brandon Jones and Jashawn Thomas scored 11 points apiece to lead the Tigers (14-10, 4-5).

GIRLS
Darlington 67, Wilson 64

Trailing 41-33 at halftime, the Falcons (13-7 overall, 5-4 Region 6-3A) opened the second half on a 17-2 run and never looked back as Darlington earned a season split with the Tigers — and kept hope alive for defending its Class 3A lower state championship.

“We told the girls in the locker room at halftime that the game wasn’t over, and the third quarter would determine who won this game,” Darlington interim coach Jesse Barber said. “They came out and played like champions tonight.”

“It was a roller-coaster game, and we ended up at the bottom end,” Wilson coach Ann Talbert said. “The fans got their money’s worth tonight.”

Jazz Green, Shaquin Waiters and Jessica McCall combined to score 53 of the Falcons’ 67 points, with Green’s 25 leading the way.

“They’re our scorers, and that’s what we emphasize,” Barber said. “Our guards are the key to our offense right now”

Darlington’s win opened a variety of possible postseason scenarios. Four teams could end up with identical region records entering Tuesday night’s region finale.

“This was a must win for us,” Barber said. “We’re not comfortable yet, but we’re pretty sure we’ll get a good seed if we win (at Camden).”

“We’ll probably have to have some playoff games to get out of this thing,” said Talbert, whose Tigers fell to 15-7 overall and 5-4 in region action. “We still have a game against Crestwood on Tuesday, so anything can happen.”

Tish White paced Wilson with 16 points. Brittney McIver followed with 10 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter.