Pinewood Prep upped its record above .500 with two wins last week.
The Panthers easily defeated Hammond 69-41 Jan. 27 in Columbia and followed that up with an important conference win on the road Jan. 29 at Hilton Head Prep.
The Panthers’ 75-61 victory over Hilton Head Prep put them alone in first place in the region with a 4-1 record. It also sets up a big showdown for the region title this Friday night when the Panthers host Hilton Head Christian. Pinewood is currently the No. 1 ranked team in SCISA while Hilton Head Christian is No. 2.
Against Hammond, Jerome Deas had 17 points while Bruce Haynes added 13 to lead Pinewood. The Panther’s bench came up with 27 points led by Drew Williams with 8 and Ryan Felder with 7.
The Panthers avenged a 68-66 home loss to Hilton Head Prep with a dominating performance from start to finish in the second game. Coach Pat Eidson has been looking for consistency for four quarters from his young team all season. He got that Friday night in an important game.
Bruce Haynes was spectacular, turning in his best performance of the year with 28 points, nine rebounds, three assists and a steal. Three other Pinewood players stepped up with double figures as Drew Williams had 13, Steve Chase 11 and Cameron Fisher added 10 on 5-for-5 shooting.
Brett Alexander, who leads the low country in assists, had 8 against Hammond and came back with 13 against Hilton Head. Alexander played all 32 minutes against Prep in an up-tempo game. Coach Pat Eidson says Alexander’s play has been crucial to his team’s success.
“Brett is playing at extremely high level with his assist to turnover ratio right now,” Eidson said.
The Panthers traveled to First Baptist on Monday, then hosted Thomas Heyward Tuesday and will round out a busy week with the showdown against Hilton Head Christian.
The Lady Panthers had a mixed week.  On Jan. 26, they played Ashley Hall in a SCISA region match up. Pinewood came away from the game with a 53-35 win.
Senior Monet Scott and Junior Alexis Simmons led the scoring with 13 points each. Freshman Maria Corella put in another strong performance, scoring 12 points.  
On Jan. 27, the Lady Panthers traveled to Columbia to take on Hammond and won 56-35.  Once again, Scott led the scoring with 13 followed by Senior Jasmine Simmons with 10 points.
Friday nights’ game was a very important encounter against Hilton Head Prep with the top spot in the region on the line. The game was a lot closer than the one played earlier in the season and the Dolphins ended up the winners by a 42-39 margin.
Pinewood fought hard throughout the game with exceptional defense play from Junior Megan Fish, who also ended up being the leading scorer on the night with 10 points.
“I couldn’t ask for any more from the players,” Pinewood coach Nancy Beatty said. “They played really well and if we could have converted a few shots the end score would have been different. We look forward to meeting Prep again in the playoffs.”
Scott and Jasmine Simmons played well considering the amount of pressure on them from start to finish. Other notable performances were that of Kelsey Orvin and Hannah Runion. The Pinewood girls are now 13-4 and 5-2 in the region.