COLUMBIA – The Westwood boys basketball team caught fire late in Friday’s game at A.C. Flora. The Redhawks erased the Falcons’ double-digit lead in the fourth quarter, even taking a 5-point lead down the stretch.
But William Willard’s clutch 3-pointer with 1.9 seconds left tied the game at 60, and the Falcons extinguished the Westwood’s fire with an 11-6 overtime run, handing the Redhawks a 71-66 defeat to open the second half of the Region 5-4A season.
“I was very proud of our guys, our guys were resilient,” Westwood head coach John Combs said.
“We were able to make plays and fight back from 12 points down to take it to overtime. We had opportunities in overtime, we just didn’t make the plays, and give Flora credit, they made the plays.”
Arden Conyers finished the night with 21 points and K.J. Rowan had 17 points. Sophomore Rodney Brown came off the bench and delivered 14 second-half points.
Four Falcons got into double figures. Christopher Parker led the way with 21 points, followed by William Willard’s 16, Cooper Wiley’s 14, and Jackson Gray’s 10.
A.C. Flora opened up with a 10-0 lead before Conyers and the Redhawks (11-12, 3-4) scraped up some baskets and foul shots to close out the first quarter trailing 15-11.
The Falcons (12-10, 5-2) outscored Westwood 12-5 in the second quarter to go into the locker room with a 27-16 lead.
Flora took its biggest lead of the game early in the third quarter, when a Ry’Neek Maxwell-Timms 3-poiner gave the Falcons a 34-18 lead. From there on out, Westwood outscored Flora 15-9, with Rowan hitting a 3 from near midcourt at the buzzer.
Even with Rowan’s 3, Westwood still trailed Flora 43-33 going into the fourth quarter.
The Falcons got 6 straight points on back-to-back Wiley baskets in the paint and a Jackson Gray short-range shot that gave Flora a 49-37 lead.
The Redhawks ignited with five minutes to go in regulation. They nearly wiped out that deficit in a 53-second stretch and changed the nature of the game.
Rowan hit a shot, then T.J. Bell made a steal and took it to the net. Bell then picked up another loose ball and tossed it to Rowan who squared up behind the 3-point line and sank it. Brown, who had opened the fourth quarter with a pair of baskets, found himself a good look from 3 and made it at the 4:07 mark of the fourth.
Brown’s shot closed the gap to two points, with Flora leading 49-47.
Gray made a pair of foul shots for the Falcons, but then Conyers downed a pair of free throws for the Redhawks.
Not long after, Conyers scooped up a defensive rebound and took it to the net to tie the game at 51.
A Parker shot made it 53-51, but Bell took the free-throw line and made both shots to tie the game again at the 2:51 mark. Sixteen seconds later Bell made another theft and completed a 3-point play to give Westwood’s first lead of the game.
Brown’s basket at the 1:53 mark had the Redhawks up 58-53.
Flora had won the first half, and “for much of the second half it didn’t look particularly good either,” Combs said. “Our guys kept battling. We went on a run that took them out of their rhythm and we gained a little bit of confidence and they lost a little bit of confidence.”
From that point all Westwood had to do was take care of the basketball and drain the clock.
Flora had other plans. The Falcons took advantage of two Westwood turnovers and scored a basket and made two foul shots to cut the Redhawks’ lead to 58-57 with 44 seconds left.
Even though Flora had possession coming out of a time out with 26 seconds left, Brown picked up a loose ball and drew a foul. His two foul shots made it 60-57 with 12 seconds left.
After a Flora timeout with nine ticks on the clock, Spence West got the clock running with a pass to Gray, who squared up for a baseline 3 shot.
His shot missed, but Parker got the rebound and passed to Willard readying behind the 3-point line. Willard’s shot sank with 1.9 seconds left and reignited the Flora crowd when time expired soon after.
Westwood, which had taken Irmo to two overtimes and won Jan. 20, took a 66-64 lead with 1:42 left, but the Falcons finished OT scoring the final seven points of the game.
“We’ve still got four games to play,” Combs said. “Every game we have in the region we know is going to be like that. When you take the good, you’ve also got to take the bad, and bounce back.”
The Redhawks fell 69-60 in two overtimes at Lugoff-Elgin Tuesday. It was Westwood’s third overtime game in the last two weeks.
Westwood is at Ridge View Friday and closes out region play at home against Irmo Tuesday.
After Tuesday night’s scores, Flora is atop the region at 5-2 with Ridge View (4-3) and Irmo (4-3) tied for second place. Westwood and Richland Northeast (3-4) are tied for third, and Lugoff-Elgin is at the bottom at 2-5—albeit with victories over the Redhawks and the Yellow Jackets.
In the girls game, Westwood (19-4, 7-0) solidified its hold on the region with a 52-43 victory over the Falcons (13-9, 3-3).
On Friday night, however, the Redhawks had to fight. The Falcons used a furious full-court press to come back from a 40-28 deficit going into the fourth quarter to tie the game at 40 with 5:30 left.
They are very effective with their press. We spent a lot of practice time trying to prepare ourselves and for the most part we handled it pretty well,” head coach Gregory Bauldrick said. “Both teams are pretty evenly matched skill-wise, and we knew that was going to be tough playing on their home floor. They were coming off a tough loss and they were going to be dug in. We had something in our own interest that we needed to protect as well.”
Westwood’s goal of staying on top of the region standings held out.
Makiah Thompson scored 17 points and Jessica Woods added 16 to lead the Redhawks. Korletta Daniels had 11 points.
Trinity Delaney had 16 points and Terrianna Gray had 11 for the Falcons.
“We prepared for a heavyweight fight and that’s what we got,” Bauldrick said. “A few body blows here and there, but we were fortunate to come away with a win.”
Westwood blasted Lugoff-Elgin 60-20 Tuesday. The Redhawks wrap up region play with Friday’s game at Ridge View, Tuesday’s home game against Irmo, and the following Friday’s game at home against Richland Northeast.
Boys
Westwood – 11-5-17-23-6 — 66
A.C. Flora – 15-12-16-17-11 — 71
Westwood
Arden Conyers 21, K.J. Rowan 17, Rodney Brown 14, Bell 8, Balkman 4, Walters 2
A.C. Flora
Christopher Parker 20, William Willard 18, Cooper Wiley 14, Jackson Gray 10, Maxwell-Timms 9.
Girls
Westwood – 13-10-17-12 — 52
A.C. Flora – 14-2-12-15 — 43
Westwood
Jessica Woods, Makiah Thompson 17, Korletta Daniels 11, Omiere 2, Johnson 4, Branch 2
A.C. Flora
Trinity Delaney 16, Terriana Gray 11, Wright-Thompson 6, Mickens 5, McCray 3, Tamira Delaney 2.