ROBERSONVILLE — A spirited fourth quarter effort inspired by team leaders Laquan Boston and Justin Williams allowed No. 3 South Creek to upend No. 2 Camden 66-55 in the semifinal round of the Four Rivers Conference tournament on Thursday.
The two teams split their previous two meetings an ended the regular season tied for second place in the conference standings. Camden (18-7) was able to take the higher seed in the tourney after winning a coin flip, but on Thursday South Creek (21-5) was able to take the higher seed for the NCHSAA 1-A state playoffs by downing the Cougars.
“This win was big for two reasons. One, we wanted to get to the conference final and try to win the conference tournament. And two, we wanted to lockup that No. 2 seed,” South Creek coach Darryl Pittman said. “We tied with Camden during the regular season and that was like the tiebreaker. Getting the No. 2 seed heading into the state playoffs may guarantee us a home game.”
After three quarters of action South Creek clung to a 43-40 lead as the fourth quarter began. That lead quickly evaporated as the Bruins, led by a 24-point performance by Brett Forbes, opened up the quarter on a 7-0 run to take 47-43 lead with 6:45 left in the game.
Sensing the contest was slipping out of their hands, the Cougars responded with a 10-4 run and climbed ahead of Camden when Boston slashed to the rim for a layup while drawing a foul. Boston would miss the free throw, but his team would go up 53-51.
While Boston, who scored six of his 19 points in the fourth, was attacking the rim, 6’5” point-center Williams did just about everything else. Williams made key passes and tallied five fourth-quarter points while coming up big on the glass.
Williams and forward Jaquan Durham both battled through early foul trouble but managed to stay in the game to contribute at the end. Williams finished the contest with 10 points, while Durham tallied nine and point guard Sha’he Mourning added 10.

South Creek    11    19    13    23    —    66
Camden    10    19    11    15    —    55
Cougars (66)
Sha’he Morning 10, Barnes 2, Hembreg 6, Farmer 8, Durham 9, Laquan Boston 19, Justin Williams 10, Little 2.
Bruins (55)
Nelson 2, Tuttle 3, Brett Forbes 24, Watson 8, Joyner 7, Evans 3, Hill 1, McDaniels 3.