Bengals fall short of 5A D1 state crown

FLORENCE – One week after the Blythewood boys basketball team’s clutch win over Dorman for the 5A Division I upper-state championship, the Bengals season came to an unfortunate end Friday night at the Florence Center.

Ridge View used a ferocious man-to-man defense throughout the game to keep the Bengals off balance, and used a 20-4 scoring run in the final minutes of the game to clinch a 71-47 victory and win their second straight state championship.

The Blazers (23-7) won the 4A state title last year, and had beaten Blythewood twice in Region 5-5A play this year.

Junior guards Korie Corbett and Yale Davis led the way for the Blazers (23-7). Corbett scored a game-high 23 points and Davis added 13 points.

Senior T.J. Lewis was the only player who scored in double figures for the Bengals (23-6). Lewis had 17 points, while the rest of his teammates scored six points or less.

“It was a really great run,” head coach Zeke Washington said. “We rode our seniors as much as we could. T.J. had a phenomenal year and our seniors played hard. We had some young kids that played hard.”

Friday night was Blythewood’s second state championship game. The Bengals fell to Dorman in the 5A state title matchup in 2017.

Washington won state titles with Fairfield Central boys (3A) in 1998 and with Chester girls (3A) in 2004.

Ridge View head coach Josh Staley won his second championship. Before Staley, the Blazers won four state championships under Yerrick Stoneman from 2018-2022.

“I’m really happy for the young men because they bought into what we’re doing,” Staley said. “It’s all about experience when you lead young people, you want to give them experiences to help them grow and be better people, and they bought into the process.”

Corbett was the key to Ridge View’s offense and defense under the nets.

“It was really just rebounds and getting to the basket, being down and dirty with everybody so my team can get the win” Corbett said.

He was 8-for-11 from the floor and 7-for-10 from the free-throw line, and got a team-leading seven rebounds and four steals.

“That’s just who he is. He puts the work in, he’s a humble young man who accepts coaching,” Staley said of Corbett. “He does things like he does tonight and we’re not surprised by it.”

Ridge View jumped to a 7-0 lead off of a Corbett jumper, two foul shots from Malachi Cooper and one foul shot from Treyvon Smith, and a basket from Reginald Mack.

Blythewood finally got on the scoreboard with Torrean Sims’ 3-point play at the 4:05 mark of the first quarter. Sims later scored on a dunk to make it 7-5, and Mujahid Jones drained a 3-pointer with 2:58 left to give Blythewood an 8-7 lead.

It was the Bengals’ only lead of the game. Seven seconds later, Corbett went to the foul line and sank two free throws to give Ridge View a 9-8 lead.

From that point Ridge View’s furious man-to-man coverage flustered Blythewood’s offense. The Bengals shot just 17-for-54, or 31.5 percent.

The Blazers ended the first quarter with a 17-11 advantage and outscored the Bengals 13-7 in the second quarter to carry a 30-20 lead into intermission.

In the second half Blythewood lost two players to foul trouble—Sims, who fouled out at the 4:25 mark of the third, and Kemuel Little, who fouled out in the 6:42 mark of the fourth. Starting forward Tyler Stephens played with four fouls on him since early in the third quarter.

Even with being in foul trouble, the Bengals kept trying to get the ball in the net. At the start of the fourth quarter Little’s layup cut Ridge View’s lead to 46-35.

Seeing a score to start the fourth quarter may have given some hope for Blythewood fans, who saw the Bengals rally late for a 46-45 upper-state victory over Dorman the week before.

Ridge View blotted that hope out awfully fast.

The Blazers went on a 20-4 scoring run to take a 66-39 lead with 1:50 left, and afterward brought in the second-stringers to finish the game.  

“No. 1, everybody’s on the same page,” Washington said about Ridge View. “Those guys worked extremely hard, they’re extremely talented, but everybody’s on one page.”

The Bengals were on the losing end again in the state championship, but the mood among the players as the teams shook hands seemed cool and determined to get back to the final game.

“It was a really good run, and the kids worked really hard,” Washington said. “We start working in April. We get in that weight room, we’ve got an open season, these guys worked hard in order to even play with guys like this. If we want to go back, we’ve just got to work, we’ve just got to work.”

Will a state championship defeat forge another solid year for Blythewood?

“It could. These days you never know who’s coming back,” Washington said. “But for those who want to get back, and want to play in a really competitive conference, it should drive them to get in that weight room and start working, and that’s where we start.”

Blythewood – 13-7-13-14 – 47

Ridge View – 17-13-16-25 – 71

B – T.J. Lewis 17, Tyler Stephens 6, Torrean Sims 6, Kemuel Little 5, Mujahid Jones 5, Terrion Mack 4, Eugenio Bandini 2,  Elijah Major 2. R – Korie Corbett 23, Yale Davis 13, Malachi Cooper 9, Talon Staley 8, Robert Wylie 7, Brayden Mack 5, Reginald Mack 3, Joshua Vankallen 2, Treyvon Smith 1.