No. 3 Lexington dominates Conway, heads to Class 5A Lower State championship
Lexington has gone from a team that won 14 games a season ago to one that is one step from a state championship game appearance.
Mason Carver scored 20 points to lead four players in double figures as the Wildcats won for the 29th straight time this season in a dominating 61-49 victory over Conway in the third round of the Class 5A playoffs Wednesday night. Next up is a date with Berkeley in the Lower State title game on Saturday at 6:30 in the Florence Civic Center.
Lexington coach Bailey Harris will be taking a team to the Final Four for the 10th time in his 32-year career. It’s the first time they’ve reached this stage since 2012, when they eventually lost to Gaffney in the finals.
“It’s the same team that won 14 last year to double that win total with the same team and to get to the Final Fours says a lot about the work they put in in the offseason,” Harris said.
Carver, an all-state selection, wasn’t sure this team would be playing for that chance.
“I’m not going to lie, I don’t know if I thought last year that we would have had a strong of a season that we’re having this year, but it’s been great,” Carver said. “We’ve done a lot to get to this point. We have two games left so we’re ready for it.”
Ryan Green added 13 points for Lexington. Bradley Foulks recorded a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds to go along with five assists. Johnathan Corley chipped in with 10 points.
Lexington found a way to limit Conway’s inside duo of Tonka Hemingway and Timothy Steele to just eight points through three quarters. The Wildcats gave away several inches and over 100 pounds to the two big threats but packed into a zone and never let them get the looks they were accustomed too.
“We’ve played a lot of man this year, but I didn’t think we could line up and play their post players in man,” Harris said. “We wanted to get a more help in there and we thought we could do that out of the zone. That’s the key guys we had to control.”
The Wildcats (29-0) looked like they would waltz into Florence with ease through three quarters. They never trailed and led 13-6 after one period. They then opened the second quarter on a 14-2 run in which five different players scored.
Conway (20-5) scored the final six points of the first half then opened the second half on a 9-4 spurt that pulled them within 31-23 before Jonathan Corley, who finished with 10 points, ignited an 18-2 run with a 3-pointer, to put the Wildcats up by 24 with just less than seven minutes remaining.
Hemingway and Steele combined to score 22 points in the final quarter as the lead shrunk to 8 with two minutes remaining but it was too little, too late at that point.
C: Tonka Hemingway 17, Timothy Steele 13, James Bellamy 10, Graves 7, Hines 2. L: Mason Carver 20, Ryan Green 13, Bradley Foulks 11, Jonathan Corley 10, Edwards 7.
This story was originally published February 19, 2019 at 10:11 PM.