The Sumter High girls basketball team began their march through the S.C. High School League Class 5A playoffs Feb. 15 with a home game against White Knoll.

The Lady Gamecocks took control early and never relinquished it in a runaway 66-27 win.

While the win was never in doubt for Sumter High, head coach Jeff Schaffer coached his team hard throughout the game. He wasn’t overly concerned about a comeback, he wanted to make sure his team is ready for a jump in competition.

“I’m going to sound like an idiot for saying this, but the scoreboard is not indicative of how we have to play defense moving on,” Schaffer said. “I told them after the game that I’m trying to coach you for down the road. Ultimately, we want to win a state championship, so every game you’ve got to be able to play better.

“Tonight’s effort was good enough to get by a first round game, but was it good enough to get by a second round game, third round game, fourth round game? Probably not. People think I’m nuts because I’m coaching them so hard when we’re up so much, but I’m not coaching for tonight, I’m coaching for what’s coming up down the road.”

The Lady Gamecocks got out to an ideal defensive start, allowing just one free throw in the opening quarter. While their offense didn’t take full advantage of a wealth of fast breaks, Sumter High built a comfortable cushion.

Dalashia Brunson struck first for Sumter High, knocking down the first shot a minute into the game. Sumter High clogged the White Knoll passing lanes to the point that the Lady Timberwolves struggled to take shots, nonetheless make them. But the Lady Gamecocks were pressing offensively, too, rushing into clogged lanes or missing open looks.

The Lady Gamecocks slowly built their lead at the free throw line. Shamira Andrews scored first, followed by a pair from Keziyah Sanders. A three from seventh grader Araina Ross pushed the lead to 8-0 before another Brunson free throw and a mid-range jumper from Rickell Brown.

White Knoll didn’t get on the board until a made free throw by Zenaida McKie with 1:46 left to play in the first quarter. At that point, Sumter High was up 13-1. Four SHS free throws pushed the lead to 17-1 by the end of the quarter.

Sumter High extended their lead to 24-1 thanks to a putback by Andrews, a three from Brown and a basket from Ross before White Knoll finally got their first field goal from Omarie Davis. Sumter High pulled back on their press defense in the quarter, but still went into the half with a comfortable 39-10 lead.

“I’m never going to embarrass somebody by continuing to press and press and press but I wanted to work on our half-court defense,” Schaffer said. “I wanted to work on the things that we’re going to need for Friday night.”

The Lady Gamecocks had the chance to really put the game away in the third quarter, but started the second half flat, much to the chagrin of Schaffer.

“We talked about that at halftime. I said, ‘You can’t come out and be flat in the third quarter, let’s get this thing over with,’” Schaffer said after his team needed more than three minutes to score in the second half. “I think a lot of times, as many years as I’ve been coaching this, when teams get big leads, they start looking at the scoreboard and they start relaxing. They stop playing the defense that got them the lead to begin with. That’s the lesson I’m trying to teach them.”

White Knoll scored the first four points of the quarter, but Brunson got the Sumter offense moving with a steal and score with 4:45. Once the offense started firing, the Lady Gamecocks stretched out their lead to 52-16 heading into the fourth.

The Lady Timberwolves hung around a little bit in the final quarter, scoring 11 points in the frame, but Sumter was easily able to salt away the victory.

The standout performance was Ross, who finished with a team-high 21 points. A strong showing for her first postseason game as a seventh grader. Late in the game, she was running the show with several starters on the bench and really held her own.

“Late in that game she was talking on defense and telling everyone where they needed to be. For a seventh grader to be directing traffic out there, that speaks volumes for her knowledge of what’s going on out there and what we’re trying to do,” Schaffer said. “The fact that a seventh grader can come out in a pressure packed situation like that says a lot about her character.”

Sanders added 11 points for Sumter High. Brunson added 10 and Brown had eight.

Schaffer liked what Brunson brought to the floor in the win.

“She’s kind of an unsung hero. She doesn’t get a lot of the accolades because she doesn’t score a lot of points but she does a lot of things you don’t see on a stat line,” Schaffer said. “She’s in there getting loose balls, she’s diving on the floor, getting putbacks. Dalashia has a little more experience and that was pretty evident tonight.”

The Lady Gamecocks will now face Cane Bay in the second round on Friday at home. The Lady Cobras took down Fort Dorchester 40-36.

Schaffer said there is one major key if Sumter wants to advance to the third round.

“We have to stop the Nettles girl,” Schaffer said of the S.C. Basketball Coaches Association Class 5A girls Player of the Year Alaina Nettles. “She’s the one that does pretty much everything for them. She’s averaging 21 points a game, eight rebounds, 3.3 assists and five steals. Obviously, we’re going to have to key on her. She’s a 12th grader, she’s been there before. She’s a really good player. Everything they does revolves around how she plays, so we’re going to have to know where she’s at for 32 minutes.”