Still in middle school, these players could win state championships

MiLaysia Fulwiley already has one championship this season. On Saturday, she will try for another.

Fulwiley, a seventh grader, helped Sanders Middle School win the district championship Feb. 7. On Friday, the point guard will be on the floor at the Colonial Life Arena trying to help Keenan win the Class 2A girls championship against Mullins.

Fulwiley hadn’t played a varsity game until Keenan’s first playoff game against Blacksburg but has played well in the Raiders’ four victories. She has come off the bench and scored in double figures in three of the four games, including scoring 14 points in Saturday’s Upper State championship game against Christ Church.

“We knew she could play at our level but we were waiting till she finished her middle school season,” Keenan coach Reggie Mclain said. “We brought her up and she has been a real impactful player for us.”

Fulwiley is one of nine players still in middle school on the rosters of this weekend’s championship teams.

The most high-profile player is East Clarendon’s Talaysia Cooper. The eighth grader has been a two-year starter on the Wolverines’ squad, which is playing Timmonsville for the Class A girls championship.

Cooper went over the 1,000 points in Saturday’s Class A Lower State championship win over Scott’s Branch. If she keeps on the current pace, she could challenge former York star Ivory Latta’s state record of 4,319 career points. Only five girls’ basketball players have scored more than 3,000 points in state history.

“I heard the summer before last that there is a seventh grader in the community that could start for us. I said no way. I never had a seventh grader start for me on varsity,” East Clarendon coach Mike Lowder said. “She showed up and she was as good as people said. She got so much better over the summer and went to camps. She is a special player and (has) God-given ability that comes natural.”

Cooper averaged 24.6 points, eight rebounds, 5.4 assists this season. She scored 50 points against Lake City, a Class 3A school, and had a 41-point game against Palmetto Scholars in the playoffs.

The 5-foot-11 guard already has the attention of college coaches. South Carolina coach Dawn Staley made the trip to Turbeville, which has a population of 803, to see a Wolverines’ home game this season.

“We never had that before. We are just a small school in a small town,” Cooper said of Staley’s visit.

“Ever since team camp this summer, we have been in touch,” Lowder said of Staley. “But for her to walk in the gym at East Clarendon High School, I don’t know if that has ever happened before.”

Of the nine middle schoolers on the championship rosters, eight are girls. The lone middle schooler on a boys’ team is Irmo’s Dylan Williams, who is the first eighth grader to play for Tim Whipple in his 37 years of coaching.

Williams, a point guard, is averaging 4.2 points and 1.8 assists in 16 minutes of action for the Yellow Jackets.

“I have had good eighth graders before but never an opportunity to be on a varsity team,” Whipple said. “Williams is an outstanding young man and integral part of the success we have had.”

This story was originally published February 27, 2018 at 3:54 PM with the headline "Still in middle school, these players could win state championships."