Dominic Corbitt (1) goes up with both hands against Lugoff-Elgin Tuesday. (Photo/Ross Burton)
BLYTHEWOOD – The Westwood boys’ basketball team held a 34-25 lead on Lugoff-Elgin at the half, but head coach Terry Dozier and his staff were a little concerned about the energy level.
“We were lethargic,” he said. “We got into them a little bit at halftime and told them that we’ve got to play basketball like we know how to do. It got their energy up.”
The Redhawks went on to outscore the Demons 35-22 in the second half to wrap up a 69-47 Region IV-4A victory.
“That’s what it was,” Dozier said. “When we got our energy up, we just started going and it made us better.”
Lugoff-Elgin (7-10 overall, 1-6 region) went toe-to-toe with Westwood (12-9, 4-3) in the first quarter. With the Redhawks up 16-11, Daniel Quattlebaum’s 3-point play for the Demons ended the first quarter and closed that lead to 16-14.
Then the Westwood offense moved out to the perimeter in the second quarter.
DeMonte Jacobs opened the stanza with back-to-back 3-pointers to stretch the Redhawks’ lead to 22-14. Jordan Watson added a 3 shortly afterward to make it 25-17.
Jacobs then sank his third 3 of the quarter to give Westwood a 30-21 lead with about three minutes left in the first half.
By then, it seemed that the Redhawks had found a winning combination of attacking at the perimeter and holding the fast Lugoff-Elgin scorers in check. Dozier wasn’t convinced, and along with energizing his team, he moved them out of a man-to-man defense and put them into several zones to get the Redhawks moving.
“We had to change some stuff up defensively,” Dozier said. “We went to 2-3 because we weren’t standing in front of people in our man-to-man coverage. Then we got into a 1-2-2 zone and it kind of got us going a little bit. Once we got off to the races we were all right.”
It took about four minutes of the third quarter to get going, but Westwood went on a 14-4 scoring run to close out that period with a 54-38 advantage.
Jacobs led all scorers with 18 points. Watson had 13 points and Dominic Corbitt had 11.
Quattlebaum was Lugoff-Elgin’s leading scorer with 12 points.
Now Dozier wants to see if his team can keep their energy up through the final three games of the season.
“We’ve got to keep winning,” he said. “We want to try for that second spot. We want to see what Blythewood and Ridge View do against each other, but we’ve got to keep winning.”
L-E: 14-11-13-9 – 47
WHS: 16-18-20-15 – 69
LE- Daniel Quattlebaum 12, Elm 9, Roberson 6, E. Campbell 5, Byrd 4, Salamond 4, W. Campbell 2, Stevenson 2, Samuel 2, Wells 1. W- DeMonte Jacobs 18, Jordan Watson 13, Dominic Corbitt 11, King 6, Atkins 6, Tolliver 5, Davis 4, Finch 4, Smith 2.
