By Thomas Grant Jr.
The Northeast is now the exclusive home of the Class 5A Division basketball champions.
Both the Blythewood girls and Ridge View boys swept the classification’s finals this past Friday at the Florence Civic Center.
The Lady Bengals opened with a 62-56 victory over Summerville. It was the program’s first-ever championship and came three years after they finished an 0-19 season.
Blythewood girls basketball
Juniors India Williams and Chase Thomas accounted for 40 points and five of Blythewood’s six 3-pointers. Williams finished with 22 points and Thomas added 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Thomas scored nine of her points in the fourth quarter as Blythewood (29-2) stretched its lead into double digits. Hayley Hightower also scored in double figures for the Lady Bengals with 11 points.
“Definitely a big moment for our program,” Lady Bengals’ head coach Emily Schaeffer said. “A big moment for the school, for the community. Credit goes to the players and my coaching staff. I’ve got to give it up to our coaching staff as well. They’re there with me day in and day out. Scouting report, film. So, it’s a whole group effort. Not just one person.”
“We knew from Day One we were supposed to be here,” she said. “We’ve been saying that since the first day of practice. We were going to be here March 7 and today we did it.”
While the Lady Bengals (29-2) made school history, Ridge View added to its dynasty. The Blazers defeated Blythewood 71-47 to claim their sixth state championship and their second straight under head coach Joshua Staley.
Ridge View head coach Joshua Staley and Talon Staley
It was the third meeting between the two region rivals. Ridge View had won the previous two meetings, but Staley said his team took the opposite approach.
“We never mentioned the previous games except the things we didn’t do right,” Staley said. “We didn’t talk about the score. We didn’t talk about the success. We looked at the things they beat us at, the things they took advantage and we act like we haven’t play this team before and it worked out for us tonight.”
Ridge View jumped out the gate with a 7-0 lead. After rallying from 11 points down in the final five minutes to defeat Dorman in the Upper State final, the Bengals bounced back with eight straight points to take the lead.
The Blazers would not trail again as their defense limited Blythewood to 7-31 from the field in the first half. They also forced 24 turnovers and took control of the game in the fourth quarter with a 23-5 run.
Class 5A Player of the Year Korie Corbett finished with a game-high 23 points and four steals and Yale Davis added 13 points. The Blazers (23-7) finished the season with 16 straight victories and 22 consecutive wins dating back to last March.
Blythewood finished the season with a
Meanwhile, Washington congratulated the Blazers while praising the effort of his team in making their first state final appearance since 2017.
“It means a lot that we fought through a lot of things to make it to this point,” he said. “We appreciate the support that everybody gave us. We wished we could have won for them, but I’m proud of my guys to fight through everything they go through to get here.”
(Feature Photo courtesy of Richland County School District 2) Ridge View boys basketball
