SC High School League announces venue for 2021 basketball championships
The South Carolina High School League announced its site for state basketball championships on Friday.
The 3,600-USC Aiken Convocation Center will host this year’s championship games, scheduled for March 3-6. Normally, the basketball championships are held at Colonial Life Arena over a two-day period but the venue isn’t an option this year.
SCHSL commissioner Jerome Singleton said the league struggled finding a venue big enough to accommodate the biggest number of fans and looked at various sites throughout the state including Rock Hill, Greenville, Florence, Columbia and Sumter before picking USC Aiken.
“We had to look that was going to be little more economical for us so that our schools can enjoy some benefits for playing the state championship financially,” Singleton said. “USC Aiken seemed to be the most economical one that seat the biggest one we could get. USC Aiken was very accommodating and bent over backwards to try and make it work. We would like to be in middle part of state but at these times we needed to be a little bit further.”
Singleton said capacity will be between 650-700 fans per game and the arena will be cleared out after each game.
The Upper and Lower state championships are usually held in Greenville and Florence but will be held at neutral sites on high school campuses this year.
SC basketball teams have played a reduced number of games this season because of COVID-19. The regular season wrapped up this week and playoffs begin Feb. 19.
SC Independent Schools began their basketball playoffs at various sites Friday. Their championships are set for Feb. 27 at Sumter Civic Center with reduced capacity.
State Championship Basketball Schedule
Wednesday, March 3
Noon - Class 2A Girls
3 p.m. - Class A Boys
Thursday, March 4
Noon - Class 4A Girls
3 p.m. - Class 3A Boys
Friday, March 5
Noon - Class 5A Girls
4 p.m. - Class 3A Girls
7:30 p.m. Class 2A Boys
Saturday, March 6
Noon - Class 4A Boys
4 p.m. Class A Girls
7:30 p.m. - Class 5A Boys
This story was originally published February 19, 2021 at 3:24 PM.
