Beaufort girls fall short of first region win

Down two points with just five seconds left in Tuesday's home contest against Fort Dorchester, Deja Jackson's full-court pass to spark a game-tying fastbreak appeared headed in the right direction, a direction that Beaufort High's girls basketball team also seemed on pace with after starting the season at 6-1. Yet just as things have unraveled since then, with the Eagles mustering a 1-9 record in the last two months, so too did the Eagles' final play.

After scrambling to recover the slightly tipped pass, Arielle McPhee's long jumper from the corner bounced off the rim and away from the Eagles' futile grasp to give Fort Dorchester a 36-34 victory. The loss keeps the Eagles winless in Region 8-AAAA play and pushes them out of the playoff picture for the first time in three years.

"With Arielle being the quickest person out there, we were trying to get a catch-and-go opportunity, but it didn't bounce our way," said Jackson, who had a team-high 14 points. "It hurts to lose when a game is close like that, especially with us wanting to win so bad. But even with one game left, it makes you a bit hungrier at the same time because we keep seeing how close we are to a win."

This passion for victory was evident early, as the Eagles jumped out to a 10-2 lead on the Patriots, who struggled to knock down open perimeter looks against Beaufort's 2-3 zone.

But the turnover bug that has hurt the Eagles all season surfaced early in the fourth quarter, allowing Fort Dorchester to capitalize. Patriots guard Indie Lawson (a game-high 19 points) turned three Beaufort miscues into eight unanswered points and the Patriots' biggest lead at 27-21 with seven minutes left in the game.

The Patriots' attempts at milking the clock unraveled, however, behind wayward passes and four Beaufort steals, the last two of which ended in a Jackson three-point play and a McPhee runner to tie the game at 34.

But after both teams missed the front end of a 1-and-1 at the foul line, Lawson drew a foul in the lane with five seconds left before sinking the decisive two free throws.

"We got a shot at it; it just didn't fall," first-year Eagles coach Rhonda McCauley said. "What started as a year with hope has turned into a rebuilding season of learning one another. There's no such thing as a good loss and it's late in the season, but I think a game like that built a fire in them because that's the first time in a while that I've seen that kind of desire to win."

BEAUFORT (9-14, 0-7) Deja Jackson 14, Arielle McPhee 8, Celeste Taylor 6, Blake Banner 3, Jay Shaw 2, Ebony Watson 1.

FORT DORCHESTER (9-10, 3-4) Indie Lawson 19, Cierra Kendrick 8, Bridget Barnett 6, Raygon Hendricks 2, Kaysee Sullivan 1.

FORT DORCHESTER BOYS 78, BEAUFORT HIGH 67

The Eagles' boys basketball team also witnessed what coach Bruce Beasley deemed "a microcosm of the season" on Tuesday, when a 26-point third quarter and three-point lead in the final period against one of the state's top-ranked Class 4-A squads spiraled into three points in the final four minutes and their sixth straight region defeat.

"I'm proud of the guys for pushing a top team like that to a standstill," Beasley said. "But a few ill-advised shots and us not playing within ourselves came back to hurt us."

Despite watching Fort Dorchester start the game on a 8-0 run and having 6-foot-8 Patriots center and USC commit R.J. Slawson (16 points and seven blocks) patrolling the interior, the Eagles relied on their quickness to penetrate the lane, attack the basket and produce a 15-2 run in the first quarter.

Still, it was the Patriots who found themselves on the foul line, going 21-for-37 while the Eagles missed all three of their free-throw attempts.

A pair of consecutive baskets by Dymonte Gwathney and Simeon Daise gave Beaufort its biggest lead at 62-56 with five minutes in the game. But the Eagles struggled to break the Patriots' full-court pressure, turning the ball over six times and allowing Fort Dorchester to open up a 13-2 run. Cory Wright (a game-high 22 points) provided the dagger at the 2:48 mark when he nailed a long 3-pointer to give the Patriots a 67-64 lead that they never surrendered.

BEAUFORT (9-14, 1-6) Dymonte Gwathney 15, Rakeem Palmer 10, Jordan Adderly 10, Simeon Daise 10, Jalin Mack 8, Lorenzo Moore 6, Melick Hall 3.

FORT DORCHESTER (19-3, 6-1) Cory Wright 22, Rodney Gibbs 19, R.J. Slawson 16, Bradley Frasier 8, Julian Johnson 7, Chris Rouse 2, Laurez Matthews 1.