Culleoka teams continue to semis

MT. PLEASANT — Complacency was the biggest opponent Culleoka’s Derrick Adkison and Mike Lovett had to coach against as they prepared their girls and boys basketball teams for their postseason openers.

The Lady Warriors and Warriors, each seeded fourth in the District 10-A Tournament, faced must-win situations in Tuesday’s play-in round. To secure berths in the tourney semifinals — and assure spots in the upcoming Region 5-A tourney — victories were necessary against teams they had each swept during the regular season.

“I emphasized, this wasn’t a given,” Lovett said. “I’ve been doing that for a week. It’s not a guarantee.”

“It didn’t matter what we’d done in the past. We lose, we go home,” Adkison said.

Both successfully made their points, as Culleoka’s girls advanced with a 55-35 win over host Mt. Pleasant at the W.C. Johnson Gymnasium while the Warriors downed Hampshire 60-28.

The Lady Warriors (13-11) will face top seed Hampshire in Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. semifinal, following the 6 p.m. Santa Fe/Richland matchup. Culleoka’s boys (13-10) meet Santa Fe — a coin flip winner over co-champion Mt. Pleasant — in the late game Friday, after the host Tigers take on Richland.

In Tuesday’s early contest, against a Mt. Pleasant team that had not won since before Christmas, Culleoka’s girls took control early and overcame four Kielee Bradley 3-pointers in the opening half to lead 31-14 at intermission.

“We live off our defense,” Adkison said. “We allowed (Bradley) to get open a few times, lost her in transition. But we were able to contain Graciee (English) inside and we kept (Baleigh) Gray in front of us. We were still a little careless with the ball, but we shot well from the perimeter.”

Katie Primm (game-high 17 points) and Tyler Reischman teamed for four of Culleoka’s five treys, while post Breanna Dickson scored 14 points. Bradley scored 12 and Emily Crossman 10 for Mt. Pleasant (2-24).

“I’m proud of the effort they gave,” first-year coach Amy Odom said. “They kept their composure, and they didn’t quit. There’s been times when we’ve gotten down 15 or 20 points and they’d quit. You could see it in their body language. I didn’t see that.

“It’s been a long year, a growing year. We’re young. We’re losing one senior (English), and we’ve got five freshmen. We’ll get in the weight room and in the gym, and we’ll come back stronger next year.”

Hampshire (0-23) went scoreless in the first quarter against the Warriors, and Jed Page’s basket at the 5:45 mark of the second period made it a 17-2 game.

“We did a good job of keeping the intensity the whole game,” Lovett said. “That’s what we worked on in practice and even in the game — making sure they didn’t get relaxed.”

Landon Andrews and Ethan Hardison, with 13 and 12 points respectively, led 10 scorers for the Warriors as they brought a tough season to an end for the Hawks.

“You don’t ever want it to end, but at the same time, these kids are tired,” veteran Hampshire coach Jon Paul Jones said. “I don’t have a problem with these guys’ work ethic; we practice at 5:45 in the morning. They get up and come to work every day, they do the things they need to do. We just have a problem scoring the basketball.

“I thought if we slowed it down and kept the score low, we may make some shots. But the rim was unkind.”

Page and Errette Delk scored seven points each to lead Hampshire.

Culleoka girls 55, Mt. Pleasant 35

M 8 6 8 13 — 35

C 16 15 9 15 — 55

Mt. Pleasant (35) — Kielee Bradley 12, Baleigh Gray 2, Emily Crossman 10, Caleigh Chalk 1, Graciee English 4, Kylie Brewer 2, Mariy Rogers 4

Culleoka (55) — Hannah Collins 6, Breanna Dickson 14, Karlie Jones 2, Maci McKennon 3, Katie Primm 17, Tyler Reischman 11, Emilee Rochester 2

3-pointers — Mt. Pleasant 7 (Bradley 4, Crossman 2, Rogers), Culleoka 5 (Collins, Primm 3, Reischman)

Culleoka boys 60, Hampshire 28

H 0 11 11 6 — 28

C 14 22 17 7 — 60

Hampshire (28) — Payden Seaman 1, Blake Morrow 3, Cameryn Bass 2, Errette Delk 7, Ethan Bowden 6, Jed Page 7, Hunter Jones 2

Culleoka (60) — Ethan Hardison 12, Preston Bagsby 4, Chris Hutcherson 2, Landon Andrews 13, Cooper Parks 9, Erik Mick 9, Tavon Bagsby 3, Hunter Harris 4, Caden Pigue 2, Hudson Adams 2

3-pointers — Hampshire 5 (Morrow, Delk, Bowden 2, Page), Culleoka 5 (Hardison, Andrews 2, T. Bagsby, Harris)