Keenan girls continue mastery of Newberry in Upper State title game

Keenan and Newberry girls’ teams were very familiar with each other this season. The region 3-2A foes played each other three times before Saturday, with the Raiders claiming a 2-1 advantage in those games.

Turns out, the fourth time was the easiest. Keenan clamped down defensively and easily outdistanced the Bulldogs 55-23 in the Upper State title game at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

The victory puts the Raiders in the state championship next Saturday at the Colonial Life Arena at 2 p.m. against two-time defending state champion Bishop England. Keenan’s the last team to beat the Bishops, claiming the state title in 2013.

“It feels great,” Keenan coach Reggie McLain said. “This group really worked hard and they deserve it. It’s going to be a big challenge (against Bishop England). They’ve been there the last three years and we’re the last team to beat them. We’ll see what we can do with them.”

Keenan (20-6) was dominating on the defensive end behind the effort of Le’on Hill. The senior center controlled the middle and finished with 20 blocked shots to go along with nine rebounds, eight points and seven steals.

In the first half, the Raiders limited the Bulldogs to just 2 of 29 shooting from the field, with 11 turnovers.

“We’ve been playing great defensively the last few games and causing a lot of people problems,” McLain said. “We have some size inside and Le’on and Isis (Hill) did a great job blocking shots.”

Hill was a freshman on the team that won the title in 2013. She said this was the goal from the beginning of the season.

“It definitely feels good,” Hill said. “We’ve worked hard. It was a long season and we had a lot of trials and tribulations but it feels good now that we’ve did it.”

Keenan only led 9-4 after one quarter but they held the Newberry (23-7) scoreless until 2:05 remaining in the half. They used a 13-0 run to take control and never were challenged in the second half. The Bulldogs didn’t score in the third quarter until 1:50 remained and the lead was 32-8.

Newberry coach Melissa Mendenhall said her team just had one of those days.

“Our shots just didn’t go,” Mendenhall said. “We played them three times already this year and our shots just didn’t fall this time. Some games are just like that. We only one basket in the first and second quarter. It’s very disappointing to happen on this stage. If it happened earlier in the season, we could learn from it and move on. But that’s basketball and the way things bounce.”

Breia Jackson and Logan McDaniel each scored 13 points for Keenan and Daishelle Robinson added 10.

“It meant more,” Hill said. “We are going for a championship. It’s more than for a region championship. We all wanted this. We thought it was going to be a dogfight.”

This story was originally published February 27, 2016 at 9:07 PM.