Westwood 67 – Greenville 55
by Chris Dearing
COLONIAL LIFE ARENA
- D’Marcus Thomas and Jayden Crews combined to score 49 points to lead Westwood to a 67-55 victory over Greenville Wednesday night in the Class 5A, Division II boys basketball state championship.
- The two seniors are part of the seven on the roster that started with coach Trent Robinson when he was the junior varsity coach at Westwood. Three short years later, the Redhawks are hoisting the championship trophy.
- “Right now, I can’t describe the feeling. My heart shines seeing the cheerleaders cheer and seeing our school celebrate,” Robinson said. “It’s such a surreal moment. You don’t know how possible it is until you get closer and closer and we did it.”
- It’s the second team state championship for Westwood since they opened the doors in 2012. The girls track team was the first to earn a state title in 2023.
- It looked like Greenville (23-7) was going to run away with it in the first quarter. The Red Raiders raced out to an 18-4 lead and looked poised for a championship run. But Westwood (25-3) had other ideas.
- They slowly clawed back and only trailed 33-28 at the half. Thomas scored on a layup at the 4:40 mark of the third quarter to give the Redhawks a 38-37 lead and they would never trail again. That was part of a 16-2 run. The closest Greenville got the rest of the way was four points.
- Crews added nine rebounds and two assists while Thomas had five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Cylan McLeod added eight points for the Redhawks. Westwood made 25-of-32 free throws while the Red Raiders shot just 12-of-20 from the free throw line.
- Caden Coleman led Greenville with 16 points while Tucker Scholl added 13 points.