Ridge View boys headed back to state title game

Yerrick Stoneman knew he wasn’t coming into a rebuilding project when he took over the Ridge View basketball team two years ago.

Stoneman saw the potential of the athletes and what was coming up through the program. Two years later, the Blazers are headed to the state championship after a 60-47 victory against South Aiken on Friday in the Class 4A Upper State Championship at Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

The Blazers play Wilson for the Class 4A championship March 3 at 7 p.m. at Colonial Life Arena. It’s Ridge View’s second state title appearance. The Blazers lost to Irmo in the 2011 Class 4A championship.

“When coach John Combs left, he didn’t leave the stables empty, we had players,” Stoneman said. “It comes from assistant coach Christian Savage, he has been working with them for the last four years. We are in the gym five or six days a week. It comes from the commitment of our kids, coaching staff and everyone. I’m just so proud of them.”

And it was at those summer workouts that guys like returnees Walyn Napper and Malcolm Wilson saw the potential of the younger guys in the program.

“The key was working hard every day in the summer to now to the playoffs,” Napper said. “Coach Stoneman pushed us every day in practice when we weren’t going hard and made us work on defense when we wanted offense.”

“We knew from the jump we had the pieces, and we just needed people willing to work hard. And coach got that, and now we are playing for a state championship,” Wilson said.

Ridge View jumped to a quick 17-7 lead in the first quarter before South Aiken responded with a 13-1 run to lead 20-18 with 5:24 left in the second.

Leading 32-31 at halftime, the Blazers started to pull away in the third quarter. Napper had seven of his game-high 22 points in the third, and Ridge View led 44-36 after three.

Napper also had nine rebounds and five assists.

South Aiken got within 46-40 in the fourth, but Ridge’s View’s guards were able to handle the pressure and get to the line. Napper and Crosby Harris-James went 10-of-13 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.

Harris-James and Wilson each finished with 12. Wilson also had 13 rebounds and five blocks.

This story was originally published February 23, 2018 at 11:02 PM with the headline "Ridge View boys headed back to state title game."