Three-peat: Dorman defeats Berkeley for third straight Class 5A title
Dorman’s dominance in the Class 5A landscape continued Friday night.
The Cavaliers won their third straight title in the state’s top classification with a 46-39 win over Berkeley in front of an electric atmosphere at the Colonial Life Arena.
Dorman is the first team since Calhoun County (2006-09) to win more three titles in a row and first in state’s biggest classification to do it since Gaffney (2003-05). No team in the state’s biggest classification has ever won four titles in a row.
“The expectation year in and year out and next group knows how hard we got to work,” Dorman coach Thomas Ryan said. “That is what makes it special to me. It is not a core of two or three guys that has taken us through three state championships. We had fourteen different starters in this title run and to see them want to live up to what the previous team did is exciting.”
Ryan admitted it wasn’t pretty at times with both teams known for their strong defense. Neither team could pull away with Dorman’s biggest lead coming at 44-37.
Myles Tate scored 19 points to lead Dorman. Jack Renwick added 11 points and had a big game on both offense and defense.
Dorman led 23-22 at halftime and led throughout the second half. It was only tied once at 25. Berkeley cut Dorman’s lead to 41-37 with 1:11 left but Renwick hit a pair of free throws to make it 43-37 with 53 seconds left.
Berkeley ends the season at 26-2. The Stags were making their first championship appearance. DJ Chisholm led Berkeley with 14 points.
B: White 7, DJ Chisholm 14, Trevur Smalls 10, Butler 2, Meggett 6. D: Desor 4, Hall 4, Cooper 7, Myles Tate 19, Renwick 11, Pilgrim 1.
This story was originally published March 1, 2019 at 11:31 PM.
