THE FINISHERS ( THE STORY OF THE 2010 4A STATE CHAMPIONS )

What I would like to do today is to look back and see how the 2010 4A State Championship Basketball Season unfolded. Before we look at this Championship season we have to look at how the 2009 season ended.

The 2009 season ended with the Gaffney Indians getting to the State Championship game in Columbia to play Lowerstate Champion Goose Creek Gators. The Indians fell behind by double digits in the 1st half, only to rally and cut the lead to two points with less than a minute to go in the game. The Goose Creek Gators would hold on and hand the Gaffney Indians a very disappointing 63 to 58 loss in the State Title Game. The Indians would finish the season at 25 and 3. The Indians would lose eight players off of the 2009 team but had 4A Player of The Year Josh Corry coming back. The Indians had three more players coming back as well with Bo Wray, Domminick Byers and Chase Smith. The loss in the Championship Game stayed with these four returning players all through the summer work-outs and preseason practices as they could not wait until the new season would start so they could try to finish what they could not finish the season before, to win a State Championship.

The season started for the Gaffney Indians with the four returning players and eight new players on the varsity team. For most programs it would have been a rebuilding season, but the Gaffney Indians of Head Coach Mark Huff are not most programs, as they are the top 4A boys program in the state of South Carolina and they were just reloading for another championship run. Coach Huff has always given his teams a nickname before the start of the season and this years edition of the Gaffney Indians would be called The Finishers.

The season opener was on December 4th against rival Union County. The Indians opened the season without their top player and the reigning 4A Player of the year Josh Corry as he was suspended for the season opener for missing a practice. The undersized Indians were quicker than the taller Yellowjackets and out rebounded Union County 48 to 27 and senior Chase Smith picked up the scoring slack from Corry not playing with 24 points. The Indians would defeat Union County 92 to 57.

The early season had the Indians defeating arch-rival Spartanburg 86 to 68 in game two of the season. Game number three of the young season had the Indians in their first big showdown of the season as the 3rd ranked Gaffney Indians faced the 4th ranked Dorman Cavaliers. The game lived up to the hype as the Indians escaped with a 66 to 60 victory. After an easy 72 to 45 win over Byrnes the Indians and Cavaliers would meet once again with the Indians completing the regular season sweep of the Dorman Cavaliers 54 to 49.

The Holiday Tournament part of the Indians schedule started as they hosted the Substation 2 Tournament at The Burial Ground. The Indians would play Spartanburg Christian Academy in the first round and defeat the Warriors 68 to 64. The Indians would defeat Chesnee in the Substation 2 Championship 81 to 59. It was two very lackadaisical and unimpressive performances for the Indians even though they won the Tournament Championship.

The Indians would then participate in the Upwards Classic Tournament at Dorman High School where they would face Peachtree Ridge from Atlanta in the first round. The Indians did not play well for a third consecutive game and fell to a very good Peachtree Ridge team 87 to 70. The Indians would bounce back and defeat Butler (NC) 85 to 73 and Sebastian River (FLA) 82 to 60 to finish out the Upwards Classic.

The Non-Region schedule for the Indians ended with another big win over Byrnes 70 to 57 and another win against arch-rival Spartanburg 67 to 56 and another win over Union County 95 to 73.So the calender had turned from 2009 to the 2010 part of the schedule with the Indians finishing the non-region part of their schedule with an 12and 1 record.

The 2010 Region 3 4A opener had the Indians defeating the York Cougars 88 to 75. It was a Region win but it was not pretty. The Indians stood at 13 and 1 over-all and 1 and 0 in region play.

The 2010 season turning point came after another lackadaisical win over Region 3 4A lightweight Nation Ford 65 to 55, the Indians would then host Fort Mill at The Burial Ground. The Fort Mill Yellowjackets would come to Gaffney and defeat the Indians 66 to 60. The Indians would follow up their loss to Fort Mill with a win at the buzzer against Region 3 4A's last place team Northwestern 73 to 71. The Indians would then insert Quinshad Davis into the starting line-up and they turned up their defensive intensity a few notches and greatly improved their rebounding as their season turned around.

The 2010 regular season ended on a roll for the Gaffney Indians, after their loss to Fort Mill and near-miss to Northwestern, as they reeled off Region 3 4A wins of 76 to 48 over Clover, 90 to 52 over Nation Ford, 71 to 66 in their rematch with Fort Mill, 94 to 56 over York, 89 to 60 over Clover and 114 to 46 over Northwestern. The Indians would end the regular season with a 21 and 2 record and as Region 3 4A Champions as they headed to the playoffs.

The 2010 4A Playoff opener had the Indians hosting and defeating South Pointe by a score of 69 to 43. The Indians would lose star guard Josh Corry in the 2nd quarter with a badly sprained ankle. The win over the Stallions would set up another showdown with arch-rival Spartanburg in the 2nd round.

The 2nd and 3rd round of the 4A Playoffs had the Indians, with a questionable Josh Corry playing in the game at about 80%, defeating Spartanburg 69 to 47 in the 2nd round and they survived a 3rd classic match-up with Dorman in the 3rd round 45 to 42. Sophomore Quinshad Davis scored the winning basket with a lay-up with 10 seconds left in the game.

The 2010 Upperstate Championship Game had the Gaffney Indians facing the surprising Easley Green Wave who had upset NO. 1 ranked Hillcrest in the 3rd round. The Indians jumped to a 22 to 8 lead at the end of the 1st quarter and was able to hold off the Green Wave with a late run for a 74 to 66 victory and the Upperstate Championship for the Indians. Dershawn Dawkins led the Tribe with 24 points including 12 in the 4th quarter. Eighth-grader L.J. Peak added 14 points and 8 rebounds.

The 2010 4A State Championship Game had The Finishers back in Columbia to finish the job that they didn't finish in March of 2009. The Indians would face the Lexington Wildcats who defeated Goose Creek the team that broke the hearts of the Indians and their fans a year ago in the Title game. The State Championship game with Lexington was a game of runs with the last and Championship clinching run being a 22 to 6 run by the Indians to end the game after falling behind 51 to 49 to Lexington to start the 4th quarter. The Wildcats had finished an 11 to 0 run to take the lead early in the 4th quarter. The Indians won this game with their bench outscoring the Lexington bench 29 to 3 for the game and they out rebounded the taller Wildcats 37 to 17. Junior PG Dershawn Dawkins led the Indians with 16 points and executed the Indians offense flawless and sophomore Quinshad Davis scored 15 points and 13 rebounds. The Indians defeated Lexington 71 to 57. THE FINISHERS FINISHED THE JOB AND WON THE 2010 4A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP IN BOYS BASKETBALL!!

The loss in the State Championship Game last year was a big motivating factor with this years Gaffney Indians basketball team. They wanted to finish the job and they did. The Finishers are 2010 State Champs!

TRIBE FACTS..... The Gaffney Indians have won four 4A Basketball State Championships in eight years.

TRIBE FACTS..... The Gaffney Indians have won a total of five Basketball State Championships in school history. The Titles were won in 1949, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2010.

Until Next Tuesday.