AC Flora outlasts Irmo in epic Midlands playoff battle. Falcons reach state title game
The third installment this season of A.C. Flora and Irmo didn’t disappoint those inside Davis Field House on Tuesday night.
The matchup between the two high school basketball programs that were ranked near top of Class 4A all season went down to the final minutes, with A.C. Flora’s grind-it-out style on offense helping pull out a 43-37 win in the Upper State championship at Bob Jones University.
The Falcons will play Wilson for the Class 4A championship on Saturday at USC Aiken. Wilson is coached by former South Carolina great Carlos Powell.
“It’s tough,” A.C. Flora coach Joshua Staley on playing Irmo for a third time. “You are going against coach (Tim) Whipple. He is a gatekeeper of this state for such a long time. So much love and respect for him. We knew it was going to be a battle, and we were fortunate enough to come out on top tonight.”
It’s Flora’s first championship appearance since 2016 — when the Falcons were in Class 3A — and the third since Staley arrived in 2014. Staley also led the Orangeburg-Wilkinson girls to three championship games appearances before coming to Flora.
CP Parker led the way for Flora with 11 points, and Kris Wallace had 9, including a go-ahead 3-pointer in the fourth quarter.
Dylan Williams led Irmo with 18 points before leaving the game with 11 seconds left after a collision with an A.C. Flora player. Irmo coach Tim Whipple said after the game Williams was OK.
The teams split during the regular season, each winning on the road. Irmo won 63-52 on Feb. 4 behind 28 points from Juice Kiett, but the senior missed his second straight playoff game for undisclosed reasons.
The Jackets could have used a second scorer to go alongside Williams, who did his best to will the Yellow Jackets to their first championship appearance since 2018. He helped key a 7-0 run to start the third quarter to tie things at 28.
Williams hit a 3-pointer, and Devin Binyard’s put-back gave the Yellow Jackets a 33-30 lead late in the third quarter. After Flora tied the game at 33, Brandon Crawford’s jumper put Irmo ahead 35-33 going to the fourth.
With the score tied at 35, Wallace hit a 3-pointer to put the Falcons up 38-35 with 5:41. From there, A.C. Flora slowed the pace down to limit possessions and make Irmo work on the defensive end.
The strategy worked — Whipple said his team was worn down by the end of the game. Flora held Irmo without a point in the final 4:17.
“Coach Whipple does such a great job. He forced us to slow it down; we didn’t chose to,” Staley said. “We needed to do a better job of taking our time and getting better shots.
“.... And our defense, that is our MO. We want to defend, get one stop at a time and we did a good job of that down the stretch.”
The loss ends Irmo’s season at 25-5. The season featured Whipple winning his 800th game and the Yellow Jackets winning the Region 4-4A title while being ranked No. 1 for most of the year.
“We showed a lot of resolve, but plain and simple we ran out of gas at the end,” Whipple said. “It was a very physical game. But I told them in there that we aren’t going to let one game define our season. This was a heck of a year and heck of accomplishment getting to an Upper State championship. I’m extremely proud of them.”
ACF: Wiley 8, Murray-Boyles 9, CP Parker 11, Green 5, Wallace 9, McDaniel 3. I: Dylan Williams 18, Summons 9, Binyard 6, Collins 2, Crawford 2.
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 9:36 PM.
