By PATRICK CASEY
The South Walton girls basketball team posted wins over Chipley, Baker and Holmes County in a span of four days to improve to 21-2 overall and wrap up District 3 of Class A with a perfect 10-0 mark in the regular season heading into next week’s district tournament that the Seahawks will host.
Against Chipley, Allee Coble, Savannah Slade and Megan O’Neal provided 59 of the 61 points scored in the contest to earn a 61-38 win over the Tigers. Coble led the way with 22 points while Slade had 20 and O’Neal 17.
The game stayed close for a good part of the first half as South Walton led only 14-9 after the first quarter but pulled away to a 34-21 halftime lead as the host squad forced 15 of the Tigers’ 23 turnovers before intermission.
South Walton connected on 16-of-24 shots from the field in the first half and made 26-of-51 for the game as they earned a sweep of the regular season series.
Chipley got 14 from Essence Williams and 12 from Brittany Lee as the squad fell to 6-12 overall and 5-5 in the district.
Against Baker, South Walton got out to a 34-3 lead after one quarter of play and coasted to a 59-27 victory for their 10th and final regular season district win.
On Friday the Seahawks traveled to Bonifay and defeated the top team in District 2 by a 50-38 count. Coble had 15 points and 16 rebounds while Slade added 13 points and 11 rebounds. The Bluedevils fell to 18-4 with the loss and will travel to Sneads next week for the District 2 tournament.
South Walton will wrap up the regular season with a home game against Liberty County on Thursday night and a road game at 17-4 Choctaw on Friday night.
Team Notes: Kevin Craig is in his 12th season at South Walton and holds a mark of 223-106 in that span. The Seahawks have won 20 games for the sixth time in his 12 years. The state championship team of 2012-13 won 25 games to hold the school record for wins in the sport. South Walton has not lost to a team from the state of Florida nor a Class A team so far this season.