John Russell, center, made the All Tournament team. | @winn_sports
GREENWOOD – The Richard Winn boys wrapped up the regular season with a 9-12 overall record and a 6-4 SCISA Region A-II mark, which set them up with a first round regional tournament contest against Newberry Academy. The Eagles had a horrendous offensive start, and that allowed Newberry to rack up a 53-21 blowout.
Ethan McManus tallied all of Richard Winn’s three first-quarter points and had six of their nine points in the first half. McManus was the only Eagle to hit double digits. He had 11 points on the night.
Newberry Academy’s Wes Huffstetter had a big 11-point first quarter and added five more in the second. Huffstetter ended with a game-high 25 points.
Newberry tripled up Richard Winn’s offensive output in the first half, and, at the end of two, Newberry held a dominant 33-9 lead. RWA looked to get the offense back on track after the rough first half, but to no avail.
The Eagles missed six shots from the charity stripe in the third quarter, and only managed eight points of offense. Huffsteter had six points in the third quarter, and Newberry Academy was able to sink a couple of shots from long range to push their lead up to 30.
Richard Winn’s defense locked Newberry down in the fourth quarter and held them to just four points, but their offense still could not find any answers. They only sank one basket in the fourth and only managed four points.
Despite RWA’s rough performance, John Russell was named to the All-Tournament team.
The Eagles start SCISA-A playoff action Friday, Feb. 17 at noon against Dorchester Academy at Wilson Hall. The winner of that game will move to Tuesday night’s Quarter-final game. Playoffs run until the State Championship game in Sumter on Saturday, Feb. 24.
NA – 16-17-15-5 – 53
RWA – 3-6-8-4 – 21
Richard Winn – Ethan McManus – 11, Dru Caldwell – 4, Hudson Wade – 3, John Russell – 2, Marshall Gibbons – 1.
Newberry – Wes Huffstetter – 25, Matt Cole – 8, Anthony McClean – 6, Bennett Connely – 4, McCallem Senn – 4, Andy Lin – 3, Shield Sawyer – 2, Payton Gardener – 1.
