Loris tops Manning in dramatic fashion

LORIS, SOUTH CAROLINA - The race for the Region 7-AAA championship just got a whole lot more interesting.

Manning came into the Loris gym on Monday having already clinched a tie for the region crown, needing to beat the second-place Lions to seal it outright.

But that didn’t happen.

La’Ontray Knox hit a tie-breaking free throw 22.4 seconds left and made two more in the closing seconds as the Lions rallied to win a 67-64 thriller.

“We work on these every day in practice,” Knox said. “Coach (Adrian) Grady makes us practice for moments like this.”

The Lions are now 15-3 overall and 7-2 in the region. Manning dropped to 18-5 overall and 8-1 in the region.

What that means is that if Loris beats Aynor on Wednesday and Manning loses to Waccamaw on Friday, the teams will share the region championship.

“Yes, we’ve still got a chance,” Grady said. “But we’ve just got to do our job and control what we can control. We’ve got to keep playing hard.”

The Lions certainly did that Monday night after Manning landed some haymakers and zoomed to a nine-point lead in the first quarter. A competitive game was expected as teams battled into overtime on Jan. 20 in Manning. The Monarchs won that one, 83-81.

Monday was the Lions’ night.

“It was a great game between two hard-playing teams,” Grady said. “We just happened to be at home tonight. ... They're still a great team. It was a good win for us. I’m glad we were at home.”

The Lions had to scrap. They didn't take their first lead until the second minute of the third quarter. From that point on, it was a dogfight with 19 lead changes and margin no greater than four points.

“We just played together as a team,” said Loris guard Duke Bellamy. “We had to make our layups and free throws.”

Bellamy was right and the scorebook supplied the evidence. Jaylen Bellamy led the way with 14 points, C.J. Cox had 12 and Duke Bellamy had 9. C.J. Hemingway and Bryson Smalls each scored eight points. Altogether, nine different Lions scored.

That was enough to offset Manning’s star power. Senior guard Justin Daniels, a Jacksonville University commit, scored a game-high 24 points while 6-foot-8 center Jeh’Qwauyn Hilton tallied 16 points and blocked 4 shots.

Indeed, it looked like the Monarchs were going to have their way at first. Hilton scored the first points with a two-handed dunk. And when Daniels drove in and threw down a one-handed slam on a fast break, it was 16-7.

Yet before the game could get out of hand, Loris put together a 7-0 run that carried into the second quarter. It started with a Smalls 3-pointer. It was capped when Hemingway grabbed an offensive rebound and threw down an authoritative dunk to make it 16-14 and fire up the home crowd.

The run also signified that the Lions were in this for the long haul.

“Loris kids are fighting kids,” Grady said. “They don't run away. They’re going to come to play.”

Things stabilized a bit for the Monarchs and they led 29-23 at halftime.

The Lions opened the third quarter with momentum and found some creases in Manning’s defense. They took their first lead at 33-32 when Jaylen Bellamy went strong to the basket and hit a layup over Hilton.

“Huge shutout to C.J. Hemingway and Jay Bellamy,” Duke Bellamy said. “Without them, we wouldn't be in the game.”

That set the stage for all those lead changes.

Part of Manning’s undoing was free throws. The Monarchs play a strong inside game and draw lots of fouls. On Monday, they were 20-of-34 for the game but just 7-of-14 in the fourth quarter.

When he got his big chance late in the game, Knox missed the first free throw but his second one went in. The Monarchs never got a chance to take the lead as they threw the ball away with 10 seconds left. That led to the foul on Knox with 7.5 seconds left and he made both free throws.

The Monarchs raced down the court in the closing seconds but the Lions’ defense was tight and wouldn’t allow a good look. A long range attempt by Daniels was well off the mark.

Loris had done it.

“We don't give up,” Knox said. “Anything can happen. We just have to keep going.”