AC Flora falls short of 4A finals as Myrtle Beach advances 

A.C. Flora boys basketball coach Joshua Staley came out of the locker room of the Florence Civic Center Friday night with his young son dejected and fighting back tears.

The Falcons run the Class 4A playoffs had just come to an end with a 68-59 loss to Myrtle Beach in the lower state championship. While Staley was consoling his young son, he wanted to remind everyone what the Falcons had accomplished in making its deepest run in the playoffs since winning it all in 2016.

“We played a championship level season this year,” Staley said. “That’s what life is all about. A lot of time, parents don’t get it. Sometimes, young folks don’t get it. Everything is a process. If you’re not okay with failing, if you’re okay with understanding you have to put in the work to get better, you usually wind up in a better place.

“Tonight is going to be a tremendous lesson.”

The pain was obvious as the players slowly trickled out of the locker room. The loss hurt but one day they will be able to look back at the season that fell one game short of the goal and remember the good times.

A.C. Flora came into the final having won 19-of-20 games but will finish with a 26-4 final record and one game short of the goal.

“This is our goal every year, to compete for a championship,” Staley said. “Most people don’t have the guts, most programs don’t have the fortitude to say their focus is to win a state championship every year. I’m so proud of our seniors and proud of my team as a whole. No one expected us to be here this year. Everyone wrote us off but I’m proud of this team.”

One thing that will stand out in the loss is the missed opportunities and foul trouble that plagued the Falcons all night. Patrick Iriel, the USC signee, opened the game with a dunk but that 2-0 lead would be the only the Falcons would hold all night.

Leading scorer Robert McCray only played two minutes in the first half and Tyrell Green, another starter, only played a little over four minutes. That allowed Myrtle Beach (19-5) to sprint to a double digit lead early in the second quarter.

From that point on, the Seahawks answered every run A.C. Flora had.

A.C. Flora kept it within striking distance thanks to a 9-0 run that turned a 30-20 deficit to a 30-29 Seahawk lead with just over a minute remaining in the half. But Myrtle Beach responded with the final six points of the half to take a 36-29 lead at the break.

“It hurt us,” Staley said of not keeping it closer at the half. “That 9-0 run was sure grit with Rob and Tyrell on the bench. We cut it down, but Myrtle Beach did a great job responding.”

Ayden Hickman led four Myrtle Beach players in double figures with 16 points. But it was the play of Emorie Knox that was key. The Seahawks point guard had to go to the bench late in the third quarter with his fourth foul and A.C. Flora trimmed a 10-point deficit to 53-52 with 6:10 remaining when Knox re-entered.

The next seven Falcons possessions resulted in two missed shots, three turnovers and 3-of-6 from the line. The Seahawks led 62-55 with a minute remaining.

A.C. Flora was 6-of-12 from the free throw in the second half while Myrtle Beach finished the game 13-of-15 from the stripe.

“I think if you let them get the lead, they will gain confidence,” Myrtle Beach coach Craig Martin said. “We wanted to make sure we kept the lead and kept our composure. I think we did a good job of keeping it together and Emorie was a big part of that.”

MB – Ayden Hickman 16, Emorie Knox 15, James Marques 14, Darius Hough 11, Jones 8, Burgess 4. ACF – JB Moore 15, Tyrell Green 11, Patrick Iriel 10, Wilson 7, Rice 7, McCray 4, Townsend 3, Booker 2.

This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 10:33 PM.