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Published: Saturday, Feb. 09, 2013 / Updated: Saturday, Feb. 09, 2013 05:22 PM

Nation Ford gets last laugh after loss

FORT MILL -- 

Jackets win, but Falcons snatch playoff berth

The Nation Ford High gym was decked out with banners for its rivalry game against Fort Mill, with one of the banners reading, “Silence the Buzz.”

Despite losing to Fort Mill 48-43, in a weird turn of events, the Falcons did silence Fort Mill as their season continues and Fort Mill’s doesn’t.

Nation Ford gets one of two coveted fifth seeds in the playoffs, despite finishing with a worse record than Fort Mill. The other fifth seed went to Gaffney.

Both Fort Mill and Nation Ford finished tied with a 5-9 Region III record, and they split the season series, but it came down to the points system, which gave Nation Ford the edge.

The Falcons now travel to South Pointe to face the Region III winner in the first round this week.

In their head-to-head match-up, Fort Mill senior Harrison Lancaster drained a 3-pointer with just under a minute as that gave the Jackets a 45-43 lead.

After a costly turnover on the Falcons’ next possession, the Jackets’ Mike Scurlock was fouled and hit two key free-throws to give Fort Mill a 47-43 lead with 19.1 seconds left. Fort Mill’s Rylan Wells added one more free-throw before the end of the game, helping to secure the Jackets’ win.

“Our defense was pretty good,” said Fort Mill head coach Dwayne Hartsoe. “We tried to make some adjustments at halftime and offensively, Harrison making that big three for us really help.”

The Falcons struggled with turnovers, coughing it up 19 times compared to just six turnovers from Fort Mill.

“We played horrible,” said Falcons’ head coach Brian Turner. “We had so much miscommunication. They played better than us. They had more of a purpose on offense.”

Nation Ford’s Riley Hilton tied the game at 31 with a little baby hook shot to start the fourth quarter.

Both teams played each other tight and Hilton was strong in the paint for the Falcons early in the quarter. Hilton led Nation Ford with 16 points, 10 of those coming in the fourth.

However, Fort Mill they had an answer for everything Nation Ford threw at it, and vice versa.

The Falcons’ play in the fourth quarter was pretty much all Hilton and senior Carson Smith, who accounted for all of Nation Ford’s 14 points in the quarter.

Defense was the name of the game to start the second half. The Falcons struggled early with three turnovers, but was able to convert two baskets, as Fort Mill struggled to hit just one. The Jackets started the quarter just 1-for-6 from the field.

Fort Mill kept shooting and clawed its way back into the game going on a 10-0 run to make it 31-28 in favor of the Jackets.

Jackets senior John Paris did the majority of the work for Fort Mill, as he scored eight of the points on the run dominating the lane.

Neither team had an impressive start to the second quarter as they combined for just one field goal on 10 shots in the first three minutes of the period.

Falcons junior Jordan Causey put Nation Ford up 18-14 with a 3-pointer, but Fort Mill’s Preston Jordan kept things at bay with a trey of his own.

Right before the half, Nation Ford went on a small 4-0 run to go up 24-19. The Falcons hit just a third of their shots in the second quarter going 4-for-12 from the field, which gave them the slight edge over Fort Mill, which struggled even more than the Falcons.

Fort Mill hit just 3-of-17 from the field in the second quarter and shot just under 25 percent for the half. Nation Ford shot around 41 percent in the first half.

Both teams came out trading 3-point attempts to open the game, but hit only one each early in the first quarter. The crowds for each school jabbed at each other after every field goal at the start of the game and it continued that way for most of the night.

Nation Ford concentrated on the higher percentage shot by going to the hole in the lane, while Fort Mill took the outside route and drained three 3-pointers in the first six minutes of the game.

Fort Mill 48, Nation Ford 43

Fort Mill – Harrison Lancaster 18, John Paris 8, Mike Scurlock 6, Preston Jordan 5, Rylan Wells 4, Devan Thacker 3, Matt Ferguson 2, Mitchell Johnson 2. Nation Ford – Riley Hilton 16, Carson Smith 9, Nick Turner 5, Jordan Causey 5, Justin Sergent 4, Hank Tuipulotu 2, Ben Sidebothom 2.

3 – pointers: Fort Mill 5 (Lancaster 3, Jordan 1, Wells 1), Nation Ford 2 (Turner 1, Causey 1).

Team fouls: Fort Mill 10, Nation Ford 17.

Records: Fort Mill 10-14, 5-9 Region III-AAAA; Nation Ford 9-15, 5-9 Region III-AAAA.

3 – pointers: Fort Mill 5 (Lancaster 3, Jordan 1, Wells 1), Nation Ford 2 (Turner 1, Causey 1).

Team fouls: Fort Mill 10, Nation Ford 17.

Records: Fort Mill 10-14, 5-9 Region III-AAAA; Nation Ford 9-15, 5-9 Region III-AAAA.