3 days Ago
Matt Mullins pulled the locker room door open and yelled out ‘that’s 11.’ A hearty roar from players inside followed. Coach Mullins and the Berkeley High School boys basketball team continued their win streak with a 57-49 victory over Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy from Georgia on the third and final day of the Carolina Invitational Monday, Dec.
30, at First Baptist in Charleston. “It’s great, but we were just talking about it in the locker room,” Mullins said. “We’re playing well right now, but we don’t want to peak in December.
We haven’t gotten to region play yet. We’ve played 12 out of like 26 games. There is a lot of basketball left.
We’re happy with where we are right now, though.” The Stags used a 19-6 run in the second half to gain control of ELCA and finished the event with a 3-0 record, improving to 11-1 over the first half of the season. Berkeley also beat a squad from Australia (77-47) and North Brunswick, N.
C., (63-51) in the tournament. Performing well on defense was the common thread.
“We know we’ve got to keep getting better because what we’re doing now doesn’t matter at the end of the season,” Mullins said. “Our defense has been solid since I’ve been here. I think we’ve gotten better offensively.
We’re a little bit deeper than we’ve been the past couple years. Some of the guys who have come up from junior varsity have contributed and we haven’t missed a beat.” The Stags won the final two games without leading scorer Deuce Kinloch, who will return soon from a minor injury.
Against ELCA, senior Cam Palmer scored a game-high 22 points and junior Justin Suarez tallied 13 points for the Stags. “We had other guys step up,” Mullins said. Kinloch leads in scoring and rebounding with 14.
5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. John Cleveland also reaches double figures in scoring at 13.
3 points per game. Jordan Livingston chips in six boards and 1.7 steals per game.
Berkeley enters the second half of the season ranked No. 6 in Class 5A Div. II.
The Stags host Summerville and Fort Dorchester Jan. 3 and Jan. 7 before opening the Region 7-5A slate at Lucy Beckham Friday, Jan.
10. The Stags host Goose Creek Tuesday, Jan. 14 and travel to Wando Friday, Jan.
17. “I think every night you have to come ready to play (in region),” Mullins said. “You’ve got to just take it one game at a time and one practice at a time to get ready for the next opponent, and hopefully you can stack wins and stack days.
Then you get to look at what you did at the end of the season.” Berkeley needs six victories to reach its 2023-24 win total. The Stags finished 17-9 and made the second round of the playoffs.
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