For the second straight round, the Lexington High School basketball teams completed a clean sweep of its Class 5A Upper State playoff opponents.

This time, it was Rock Hill High School which saw its respective seasons end at Wildcat Gymnasium. A night after the Lexington girls held off the preseason number one Lady Bearcats, the boys’ team used a dominant second half to eliminate Rock Hill 81-46 on Feb. 18.

Cam Scott scored 19 of his game-high 29 points in the second half and Kaleb Evans had 10 of his 16 as well to lead the Wildcats to their 13^th straight win.

Most encouraging to head coach Elliott Pope was the play of Coulter Bell. The junior guard, who has struggled offensively, had 12 of his 14 points in the first half which helped Lexington stay close with Rock Hill.

“I told it to the guys in the locker room it was going to come out at some point and I hope it gives him a little bit of confidence for Wednesday because nothing’s guaranteed at this point,” he said. “I think that Coulter did a really good job of taking shots that he was comfortable with and, after he hit a few, kind of getting back to that kid that we saw for so much of last year. This will propel him to a good rest of the high school season and prove to a lot of college coaches that he’s a college level player this summer.”

Bell credited having an early shootaround with “quiet time in his room praying” for getting him comfortable on the floor. He was also motivated to play for senior guard Kamadi Maxwell, who was serving a one-game suspension for leaving the bench to come to Evans’ aid during a brief heated moment against J.L. Mann.

Lexington held a 15-14 lead in the first quarter, in large part aided by Bell’s 10 points. In the second quarter, the Wildcats got more comfortable offensively with Scott, Evans and Jaxon Prunty combining for 19 of the 21 points scored in the second quarter.

Up 36-29 in the second half, Lexington quickly pushed its lead to double digits. The defense limited Rock Hill to 16 points over the final two quarters and held it to one field goal in the fourth quarter.

“You’ve got to be able to make adjustments and that’s a Rock Hill team that obviously watched a lot of tape and obviously knew how to attack our zone at a high level and we just had to make some adjustments and things, just a little bit of communication and player rotation and credit to our guys,” Pope said. “They communicated from the bench, they communicated on the floor and really were able to put themselves in a position to get up and get a little bit of a lead in the second half.”

A monstrous dunk by Scott and spinning layup by Evans pushed the Wildcats lead into double digits. This despite Prunty missing the rest of the game due to ankle tightness.

Lexington (19-6) will now have four days to prepare for the Feb. 22 third-round matchup with T.L. Hanna. The winner goes to Bob Jones University for the Upper State title on Feb. 27.

“Our goal is state, so one goal at a time,” Bell said.

River Bluff 50, St. James 46

For the second time in three years, the Gators are headed to the third round of the Class 5A Lower State playoffs.

Omari Caldwell scored 15 points and Dawson Powell and Luke Chapman each had nine for River Bluff (13-13). 

The Gators will next play at Conway for a berth in the Lower State final Feb. 27 at the Florence Civic Center.

Gray Collegiate 95, Abbeville 45

Avantae Parker scored 18 points, Treyvon Maddox had 14 and Braylhan Thomas added 12 to lead the top-ranked War Eagles to their eighth straight win.

Gray Collegiate (22-6) will play host to Region 4-2A rival Eau Claire Feb. 21 for a berth in their seventh straight semifinal appearance. They won both meetings against the Shamrocks this season.