Tar Heels-Gamecocks Battle Inspires High School Athletes
By Lenore McKenzie-Morris
Cetera DeGraffenreid's unrelenting performance on the court Sunday netted her 26 of the 93 points the North Carolina Lady Tar Heels earned to edge by the South Carolina Lady Gamecocks Sunday with an eight-point win in the Carolinas Challenge in Myrtle Beach.
"This was a great college basketball game," said Sylvia Hatchell, head coach of the University of North Carolina women's team. "The intensity of the game and the crowd ... there was a lot of good playing out there."
With the University of South Carolina successfully fighting for an edge early in the second half and then losing it minutes later to the Tar Heels' comeback, the college basketball players were under considerable scrutiny.
Scattered among fans dressed in Gamecock red and Tar Heel blue, dozens of young women ardently watched the teamwork on the court, knowing they would be playing on the same court during the next few days in the Crescent Bank Holiday Invitational.
For 14-year-old Tanisha Brown, the game brought her passion for basketball close to home. "South Carolina has a very good defense," Brown said, "and North Carolina has good post moving around. Cetera DeGraffenreid, she's a great player and Chay Shegog, she's a great post."
Brown, a Myrtle Beach High School player who confirmed she's already committed to playing for the Tar Heels in another four years, watched Hatchell yelling from courtside as the game progressed in intensity, and said she couldn't wait to be yelled at by the woman.
"I love when people yell at me, it makes me play harder," Brown said.
Brown's teammate, Kadisha Sessions, a Myrtle Beach High School junior with offers from South Carolina, Clemson and Alabama, said it was fun to watch UNC and USC go up against each other.
"I love to see a guard and a post work together," she said, watching as USC center Kelsey Bone and guard Valerie Nainima worked the court.
Across the gym, North Myrtle Beach High School's Leandra Freeman was inspired by Nainima's repeatedly successful shots from a distance. "I am trying to watch what they are doing," Freeman said. "I want to shoot threes like that one day."
Steve Hilton, a basketball coach from Scott County, Kentucky, brought his girls high school basketball team back to Myrtle Beach for the fourth time for the tournament. He watched the game surrounded by his team on Sunday.
"What I'd like for them to get out of this is, this is what I'm working toward," Hilton said. "To understand that at the next level they are doing the same things we are. I hope this gives them an opportunity to set goals. We want them to be students of the game at this intensity level, in this environment, on the same court they play on. That's just so important for all the teams involved."
Hatchell, who has been involved with the girls basketball tournament since its inception 11 years ago, said giving all the high school kids a chance to see college games was important.
"Having them see, not just our game but Francis Marion and now Coastal Carolina playing, that's three levels of college basketball, that's very competitive," said Hatchell. "It lets those kids see where they can play and how they fit in. It's a chance to see there is another level here, that this is just an intense game."
Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley agreed with Hatchell's assessment of the game and had praise for her own team.
"They fought, they were resilient and put themselves in a position to win at the end of the game, but North Carolina is a tough team," Staley said. "We've got some players on our team that are very talented. I thought our younger players ... Ieasia Walker, I though she grew up out there."
One of only three freshmen on the Gamecocks' team, the New York freshman is close in age to the dozens of high school students who watched the game Sunday with rapt attention.
Staley said she'd return with the team for future tournaments.
"We will return, not next year but the following year, and we'll make it an annual thing," Staley said.
The Crescent Bank Carolinas Challenge featured college basketball games on Sunday, at the mid-way point of the Crescent Bank Holiday Invitational high school basketball tournament.
The prep action resumes today at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, and is followed after Christmas by the boys high school Beach Ball Classic tournament.
Now we know who the senbilse one is here. Great post!