Lady Seahawks Continue Quest for State Championship
By Terry Massey
The Myrtle Beach High School football team fell one win short of the state championship, and the boys basketball team had its state title hopes ended Tuesday night.
But there's still one team threatening to bring the Seahawks a state championship this season: the No. 1-ranked Myrtle Beach High girls basketball team.
The Lady Seahawks improved to 26-1 on the season with Thursday night's 55-51 victory over Wilson High in the second round of the Class AAA playoffs.
While Myrtle Beach has cruised through the regular season, beating opponents by an average of more than 40 points per game, they faced their first real test against the Lady Tigers. With the game and season on the line, D.J. Hunter and Khadijah Sessions made key free throws in the final seconds to get the win.
”We really needed a challenge like this to get our team's attention,” said Myrtle Beach Coach Brian Kiper. “Our starters have been on the bench in the fourth quarter for the whole season so it was great to see them respond like they did when it was close at the end of the game. This game is going to help us a lot.”
The Lady Seahawks seemed to have the game under control as usual when they jumped out to a 23-9 lead in the first quarter, but the Lady Tigers came roaring back in the second quarter to cut the halftime deficit to 30-29. The second half saw the lead go back and forth, with Wilson ahead 47-46 with four minutes left.
But the Lady Seahawks showed some late-game toughness they haven't had to call upon since the Crescent Bank Holiday Classic, when they suffered their only loss of the season to a team from North Carolina. Shatia Cole sparked a 6-0 run to recapture the lead for good, but the game still wasn't in the bag.
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Wilson cut it to 52-51 and Myrtle Beach, which went 19-of-41 from the free-throw line on the night, missed six opportunities to extend the lead. Hunter finally hit her clutch foul shots with 28 seconds left and Sessions made a big steal and made one foul shot with five seconds left to put the game out of reach.
”I've got to give credit to my teammate Tanisha (Brown) on that one,” Sessions said of the deciding steal and free throw. “She's playing with a hurt knee but she kinda knocked the ball loose and set it up for me to make the steal. I was proud of the way we responded because everybody stepped it up when we had to.”
Sessions led the Lady Seahawks with 15 points, while Danielle Cooper added 14, Cole chipped in 12 and Hunter scored nine points to provide a balanced attack.
Wilson's Tish White scored a game-high 17 points, Chasity Winston added 11 and Shamaine Bacote had nine for the Lady Tigers, who finished the season 18-7.
The victory sends Myrtle Beach to the third round of the playoffs. The Lady Seahawks welcome North Charleston for a home game at 7 p.m. Monday.
Sessions said her team is ready to repeat and improve upon what she in the Lady Seahawks did in 2008, when they finished runner-up in the state title game.
”I think this team may be even better and we showed that tonight when the game was on the line,” Sessions said. “Having been so close to winning the state championship that year, it makes us even hungrier to go back and win it this time. We just have to keep playing hard as a team like we did tonight.”
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