Late scoring flurry pushes Rock Hill past J.L. Mann and into state championship game

De’Ashaj Crawford hit a go-ahead three with 30 seconds left as Rock Hill beat J.L. Mann 52-50 in the upper state championship Friday afternoon.

It was a close battle throughout, as neither team took a lead larger than six.

J.L. Mann opened the game with a 10-0 run, but Rock Hill struck right back with a 13-5 run to end the first quarter as the Bearcats trailed by two.

The second quarter saw Rock Hill seize some control, outscoring J.L. Mann 13-8 in the quarter thanks to a trio of 3-pointers by sophomore guard Chloe Hudson.

That performance gave Rock Hill a 26-23 halftime lead.

“I was hitting shots,” Hudson said. “I took a lot, but that’s what was open at the time, and that’s just what we had to do to keep moving and keep up with the game.”

Rock Hill tried to expand its lead in the second half, taking a six-point lead with just over five minutes to go in the third quarter, but J.L. Mann had an answer for everything the Bearcats threw at them.

Both teams scored 12 in the third quarter.

J.L. Mann found its footing again in the fourth quarter, opening on a 13-5 run to take a 48-43 lead with two minutes left.

However, just as in the first half, Hudson took over again, knocking down a 3-pointer and then intercepting a pass on the ensuing J.L. Mann possession for an easy transition layup. In a matter of seconds, the game was tied.

“Chloe runs off points like that,” Rock Hill head coach Kenny Orr said. “If you go back to the Mauldin game, she kind of iced that Mauldin game with the same thing: hit a three, we got a steal on the other end, she came down and hit a floater. She was able to in our brand of defense that we ran in the end, she read it just right. Got a steal and was able to go and get the layup.”

J.L. Mann went down the court and scored to go back up by two, and on Rock Hill’s next possession, Orr called a timeout. He wanted to talk and draw up a play.

Coming out of the timeout, as the play set up, the ball was in Crawford’s hands behind the three-point arc. The senior guard looked at the basket and shot.

The sound of the ball swishing through the net was immediately drowned out by the roars of the Bearcat faithful.

“At the time, we were down, and we were setting up a play for our shooter, but she wasn’t open, everyone was guarding her,” Crawford said. “I looked at the clock and seen there were a couple seconds left. They passed it to me, I was open at the top, and I just let it fly. It went in, and I knew that was game. We had it.”

Crawford’s three gave Rock Hill a 51-50 lead with 30 seconds left. J.L. Mann went down the court but missed the ensuing shot and the Bearcats grabbed the rebound.

J.L. Mann fouled immediately, sending Hudson to the free-throw line. The sophomore hit only one of her two free throws, but J.L. Mann was unable to get a shot off in time as the final buzzer sounded.

“I’m exhausted, to be honest with you,” Orr said. “That was nerve-racking. That was a very intense game on both sides. Both teams did what they were supposed to do, runs after runs. Each style of play kind of dictated the game at certain points, and luckily, our style was able to dictate the final.”

Key contributions that won’t show up in the stat sheet or the scoreboard are the efforts of Rock Hill forwards Sarah Anderson-Wildy and Imani Sterling.

The two only combined for one point on offense, but what they did defensively was a major boost in Rock Hill’s win.

They were tasked with guarding J.L. Mann’s interior players, including center Breah Franks, who had a size advantage over both Anderson-Wildy and Sterling.

However, when J.L. Mann needed points, it went to its bigs, and the Bearcat forward duo slowed them down, especially down the stretch.

“Coming in, I knew they had bigger kids, so I just came in like this because I can use my length,” Anderson-Wildy said. “I don’t have the mass, but everything was just mental. Coming in, I didn’t really think too much about the size other than just getting in there and getting it done. It really just came down to who puts up more points, who gets the most rebounds, who’s putting in the work down there and just had to do what I do.”

Rock Hill will play the winner of the Sumter-Summerville game, which was Friday night, for the state championship March 1.

Orr said that the early tip-off and early travel time threw off the team somewhat, but heading into another game in the same facility will do it good.

“Hopefully, we got a better understanding of what we need to do versus leaving at nine o’clock in the morning, travel to, get lunch, and then try to waste two hours. The arena setting, kind of got a better idea of what we are into that, and just the whole thing of traveling and figuring it out.”

Tip-off for the 5A girls state championship is scheduled for 6 p.m.