Shorthanded Myrtle Beach advances to second round

The Myrtle Beach boys basketball team doesn’t even seem to flinch anymore.

The Seahawks rolled to a 64-49 win over Cane Bay in the first round of the Class AAA playoffs Tuesday. But, thanks to a ruling from the South Carolina High School League, it did so with two of its best players sitting on the bench in warmups.

No worries.

Behind a 20-point game from E.J. Goings and some aggressive play around the rim, the Seahawks advanced to the second round.

“I believe we can play with anyone in the state because we’re a family,” Goings said. “We come with intensity. We were a little rough early, but we came out and started hitting shots.

“We’re missing Daquarius Wilson; we’re missing Tramond Wilson. But I feel like coach [Craig] Martin prepared us so well that we can take on anybody, even with people missing.”

Against the Cobras, at least, that appeared to be the case.

The bigger and more athletic Seahawks started flexing their muscles before the half. While official rebounding numbers were not kept, it was easy enough to see that Myrtle Beach held a significant lead in the category. It got to more lose balls and had plenty of fast-break points cued by Cane Bay mistakes.

Once the Seahawks (14-11) got a few of their own out of their system, they jumped out to a 32-22 halftime lead and then held the Cobras (12-12) at arm’s length the rest of the way.

The last few weeks may have been the key to Myrtle Beach’s first playoff victory since 2009. Of the four Region VIII-AAA teams that made the playoffs, three – Wilson, Myrtle Beach and Socastee – all pulled off victories by nine points or more Tuesday.

“We’ve been playing this way for a while,” Martin said. “We’ve played a lot of good teams. We’ve played great teams. I think we have that identity now, which we didn’t in the past. … They’re comfortable doing it.”

The Seahawks did enough in region play to warrant the No. 2 seed and a home game. Unlike the game against Cane Bay, however, much of what they were able to accomplish included Daquarius Wilson and Tramond Wilson.

Daquarius Wilson was kicked out of the team’s Feb. 3 game against St. James for an on-court incident. After originally serving a two-game suspension, Martin said the South Carolina High School League reviewed the film late last week and added two more games. Upon reviewing the film, the SCHSL also saw fit to hand out a one-game suspension to Tramond Wilson, who played in the final two regular-season games.

It was another knock for a team that is all too used to the ebbs and flows. Myrtle Beach was not allowed to participate in the playoffs a year ago after it was discovered it used unauthorized preseason practices.

Daquarius Wilson must sit out Friday’s second-round playoff game at No. 1 seed Lower Richland. Tramond Wilson, one of the team’s leading scorers at more than 13 points per game, will be back for that contest.

Having him in the starting lineup should be a nice boost.

If not, Myrtle Beach looks the part of a team able to adjust on the fly.

“We’ve got through a lot of adversity in the past, so it’s kind of nothing,” Martin said. “We’ve fought through it. They’ve handled it extremely well; they handled it extremely maturely. It made me happy to see how they handled it.

“But adversity and us – they kind of go hand in hand.”

• CANE BAY (49) – Marquise Hilton 4, Marcus Looney 11, Zach Wimmer 2, Christian Lawyer 3, Jiquan Hammond 4, Sean Bass 3, Traevon Doctor 10, Shaquille Butler 12.

• MYRTLE BEACH (64) – Tyrone Sutton 6, E.J. Goings 20, Emaray Johnson 4, Nolin Butler 7, Mason Lewis 12, Bert Mack 4, Solomon Cooper 2, T.J. Jones 9.

• 3-point goals: CB 4 (Looney 3, Bass); Myrtle Beach 3 (Lewis 2, Butler). Team fouls: CB 15, MB 13. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: None.

• Records: Cane Bay 12-12; Myrtle Beach 14-11.