McDonald’s Big Mac Shot Clock Classic Day 2 Recap:

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The 2023 McDonald's Big Mac Shot Clock Classic continued on Thursday, December 21st, at Byrnes High School in Duncan, South Carolina. Some of this season's top Upper State teams were in action today including Byrnes, JL Mann, Catawba Ridge, Mauldin, Rock Hill, Columbia, Woodmont, and High Point. <strong>Take a look at a recap of the day's action:</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Thursday's Final Scores:</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Woodmont 75, High Point Academy 65</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Rock Hill 60, Columbia 46</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Catawba Ridge 89, Mauldin 58</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Byrnes 93, JL Mann 71</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Huff and Stewart Lead Wildcats over Grizzlies</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:image {"id":2304762,"width":"425px","height":"auto","sizeSlug":"large","linkDestination":"media"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><a href="https://prephoops.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Image-12-22-23-at-10.44-PM.jpeg"><img src="https://prephoops.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Image-12-22-23-at-10.44-PM.jpeg?w=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-2304762" style="width:425px;height:auto" /></a></figure> <!-- /wp:image --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Day 2 of the McDonald's Big Mac Shot Clock Classic began with a fun scoring battle between High Point's [player_tooltip player_id='1621660' first='DeAnthony' last='Ross'] and Woodmont's [player_tooltip player_id='1239540' first='Dre' last='Huff'] (Pictured). In the first quarter, Ross put up 13 and Huff had 11 in the first quarter and neither missed a shot. Other than stopping Ross, the Wildcat defense was very strong on Thursday. They were running a 3-2 zone that did a great job of limiting driving lanes from the Grizzlies and forcing them to work hard for good looks. On the offensive end, Huff was extremely efficient and Senior <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2306326' first='Drake' last='Stewart']</strong> emerged as a strong second-scoring option. Huff and Stewart each had 20 points for the Wildcats, but it was Ross who had a game-high with 29 points to go with 10 rebounds. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Strong Defensive Effort Paves the Way for Rock Hill's Win Against Columbia</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:image {"id":2304763,"width":"426px","height":"auto","sizeSlug":"large","linkDestination":"media"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><a href="https://prephoops.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Image-12-22-23-at-10.45-PM.jpeg"><img src="https://prephoops.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Image-12-22-23-at-10.45-PM.jpeg?w=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-2304763" style="width:426px;height:auto" /></a></figure> <!-- /wp:image --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Both teams had very strong defensive efforts in Thursday's second game. Rock Hill almost exclusively played a 1-3-1 Zone and Columbia switched between 1-3-1 and 2-3 for most of the night. Columbia is a smaller team in comparison to Rock Hill but they did a good job of moving their feet and playing team defense to keep the Bearcats out of the lane. On the other end, the length of Rock Hill made it hard for the Capitals to get good looks around the basket. It made for an even start to the game. However, Rock Hill made a key adjustment to help them grab and extend a lead in the Second Quarter. They moved Senior Big <strong>Zacarious McKinney</strong> (Pictured) to the top of the 1-3-1 Zone and extended it to pickup halfcourt, causing more havoc for the Capitals ball-handlers. McKinney had a good game on both ends of the floor, finishing with 7 points and 7 rebounds and Freshman <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2370661' first='Nigel' last='Lightner']</strong> carried a solid amount of the load on the offense end putting up a team-high 12 points. <strong>Zay Buckley</strong> was impressive for the Capitals, tallying 17 points and 13 rebounds. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Hager Hits 7 Threes As Catawba Ridge Knocks Off Mauldin</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:image {"id":2304764,"width":"425px","height":"auto","sizeSlug":"large","linkDestination":"media"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><a href="https://prephoops.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Image-12-22-23-at-10.47-PM.jpeg"><img src="https://prephoops.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Image-12-22-23-at-10.47-PM.jpeg?w=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-2304764" style="width:425px;height:auto" /></a></figure> <!-- /wp:image --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The 5th Ranked 4A Catawba Ridge Copperheads came into the game at 9-1 on the year, but Mauldin played them perfectly in the first half. They had a lot of success passing through the Copperhead 2-3 Zone and got some easy buckets at the rim. Nathaniel Wilbourne, who didn't have a big night on the stat sheet, was very impactful in the flow of the Maverick Offense and got several "hockey assists" as Mauldin led 34-32 at halftime. But, in the 3rd Quarter, the Copperheads started to find a rhythm on both ends of the floor. [player_tooltip player_id='1621536' first='Lance' last='Barnes'] did a great job of creating turnovers from the Maverick ball-handlers and turning them into points in transition. [player_tooltip player_id='1168159' first='Zyan' last='Hager'] got hot from deep range and put on one of the best shooting performances I have seen so far this season. [player_tooltip player_id='1206192' first='Quh'mareon' last='Webb'] (Pictured) had a great two-way game and made some key buckets to keep the Copperheads close in the first half before adding to their lead in the 4th quarter. The Catawba Ridge "Big Three" made up for 74 of the Copperheads' 89 points: 33 on 7-13 3-Point Field Goals from Hager, 24 Points 13 Rebounds and 6 Assists from Barnes, and 17 Points 9 Rebounds and 7 Assists from Webb in the 89-58 win. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Hosts Defeat JL Mann in Thursday's Final Game</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:image {"id":2304765,"width":"426px","height":"auto","sizeSlug":"large","linkDestination":"media"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><a href="https://prephoops.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Image-12-22-23-at-10.49-PM.jpeg"><img src="https://prephoops.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Image-12-22-23-at-10.49-PM.jpeg?w=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-2304765" style="width:426px;height:auto" /></a></figure> <!-- /wp:image --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Runnin' Rebels got a fast start in Game Four of Day 2 of the McDonald's Big Mac Shot Clock Classic. They opened on an 8-0 run in the first 1:39 seconds converting all 4 of their shots and getting 3 steals on the defensive end. 9 Rebels scored in the first quarter, led by [player_tooltip player_id='1032164' first='Will' last='Fowler'] with 9. The Patriots did a better job of finding an offensive rhythm using the size of Junior <strong>Dontez Walker</strong> and Senior <strong>Thomas Davidson</strong> but still trailed by 18 at the break. Newberry Commit [player_tooltip player_id='1678545' first='Kayzzin' last='McDowell'] had a great 3rd quarter where he had 10 of his 19 points to help extend the Byrnes lead, earning some early rest. Junior <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2417275' first='Jamari' last='Cullen']</strong> had some really nice minutes in the 4th Quarter for the Rebels and was the leader for the "Second Unit", finishing with 17 points as the hosts earned a trip to the Championship Game. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->