Trailing by 13 points at halftime, the Wando girls basketball team rallied late for a 53-52 win over Lexington, claiming the Class AAAAA Division I Lower State title at the Florence Center on Feb. 28.
Wando (22-6) will play for the state championship on March 6 at 6 p.m. at Colonial Life Arena.
McKenna Reynolds chased down a missed jumper and scored the game-winning basket with 12 seconds left in the game to seal the win. She had 10 points in the second half.
Lexington hit a midcourt 3-pointer at the buzzer before halftime to open a 28-15 lead. Both teams came out strong in the third quarter, but Wando still trailed 45-35 heading into the final period.
Ava Rush scored nine points in the fourth, and her 3-pointer with 1:20 remaining made it 51-48. Down 52-50, Wando got a free throw from Emily Crawford to set up Wando’s final tally. Lexington had one last shot with less than a second to play but came up short on a shot in the paint.
Wando is playing in the finals for the first time since 1980. The Warriors finished third in Region 7-AAAAA behind Goose Creek and Berkeley this season.
Atlantic Collegiate 52, Timberland 43
Timberland’s girls team came up short in their bid to win the Class AA Lower State championship, suffering a 52-43 setback to Atlantic Collegiate. The Wolves had won 13 straight games before the loss and ended their season at 22-7.
“I’m very proud of them,” Timberland coach Kelsey James said of his team. “They put in a lot of hard work and dedication to get us to this point of the season.”
Atlantic Collegiate (23-2) goes on to meet Landrum (23-7) for the Class AA state championship at 2 p.m. March 5 at Colonial Life Arena.
Timberland had hoped to get back to Columbia, and win, for the first time since 2011. And the first part of that goal looked promising for much of the first two quarters.
The Lady Wolves led 19-11 after one period and held a double-digit advantage in the second quarter before Atlantic Collegiate closed the first half on a nice run to tie the score at 27 at the break.
Timberland last led 31-29 on a four-point play from the corner by senior guard Zion Prioleau with 5:53 remaining in the third quarter.
After Prioleau’s bucket pumped some life into the Timberland bench, the Armada got the ship steadied and went on a 15-4 run go up 44-35 on a pair of buckets in the first two minutes of the final period.
The Lady Wolves never got closer than five points the rest of the way.
Prioleau and Scott tallied 15 points apiece for the Lady Wolves. Greene chipped in eight points. Scott had 13 points in the first half.
Keenan 62, Oceanside Collegiate 43
The Oceanside Collegiate girls team played Keenan in the Class AAA Lower State title game and came up on the short end of a 62-43 score. It was the first Lower State appearance for OCA, which finished with 21 wins this season. Keenan will be playing in its 10th state title game.
OCA kept the pace early but trailed 16-8 after the first quarter. The lead was 30-19 by halftime, and Keenan put the game away with a big third period.
