Sitting at 20-3, Rock Hill girls knows they can rely on their seniors
It was Rock Hill’s senior night on Tuesday.
Normally, a team celebrating senior night would either start an all-senior lineup for a minute or two or sub in a full senior lineup toward the end of the game.
But head coach Kenny Orr didn’t want to play his seniors for just a minute or two.
The starting lineup for the Bearcats was all seniors: De’Ashaj Crawford, Sarah Anderson-Wildy, Layla Jones, Omadeah Ford, and Imani McClurkin.
That’s not Rock Hill’s usual starting lineup, and the Bearcats got out to a slow start against Fort Mill Tuesday night, but Orr was more than willing to live with it.
“We came out kind of disjointed,” he said. “We started all seniors... didn’t come out like we normally do, but we weren’t too worried about it. Usually, a lot of people will play the seniors for a minute or two. I tried to give them the full (first) quarter.”
However, even when Rock Hill went to its go-to lineup for the second quarter and beyond, which features junior Aubrey Stevenson and sophomore Chloe Hudson, it was a senior who made several big plays in the game to lead the Bearcats to victory.
Crawford scored nine of Rock Hill’s 18 points in the second quarter while picking up three steals in the second quarter as the Bearcats overcame a first-quarter deficit to take a 13-point halftime lead.
Even with the rocky start, Orr’s faith in his team and his seniors remains strong.
“That’s what De’Ashaj does,” Orr said. “De’Ashaj has been scoring around 20 points per game over our last few. She’s our all-state guard, she’s been all-region, she’s been around for three years now. You roll with her mistakes at times because you know she’s going to roll off eight, nine, 10 points in a row.”
A lot of the seniors on the team were sophomore members of the 2022 state championship team.
None of those players averaged more than four points that year, but Orr has watched them grow, develop and mature into becoming key contributors on this year’s squad.
He wants his seniors to reach that heralded height once more before they graduate and understands that a lot of it is going to fall on their shoulders.
“What I tell my seniors is we’re getting closer to their last game,” Orr said. “Right now, we have three more region games, but then after that, it’s a one-game season, and their careers could be over (in any round). So we just have to make sure we don’t get complacent, make sure we continue handling business like we normally do, and we’ll be alright.”
More about the game
Rock Hill used a big second quarter to beat Fort Mill 54-30 Tuesday night for its 14th consecutive win.
The Bearcats trailed Fort Mill 9-7 at the end of the first quarter, but wasted no time in taking control of the game before halftime.
Rock Hill outscored Fort Mill 18-3 in the second quarter behind an aggressive defense that forced turnovers and created several transition baskets. The Bearcats ended the quarter on a 14-0 run to take a 25-12 lead into halftime.
Rock Hill was able to keep that pressure up in the second half, outscoring Fort Mill 29-18 en route to a season sweep of the Yellow Jackets.
Senior De’Ashaj Crawford led all scorers in the game with 19 points in the contest.
Rock Hill (20-3, 7-0) next play at Nation Ford at 6 p.m. on Feb. 2, while Fort Mill (16-7, 2-5) will be home against Spring Valley at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 2.
