Indians crush Lancaster

Ledger photo by LARRY HILLIARD Gaffney's Jazz Palmer, shown driving to the hoop against Hillcrest, sprained his ankle against Lancaster and is questionable for the playoff opener against Wren on Wednesday. After a stretch of some close region games, the Gaffney Indians got a breather to end the regular season on Friday.

Johnny Woods had 16 points and David Dewberry added 15 as the Indians routed homestanding Lancaster, 82-50, to end the season at 18- 5 overall. The Bruins fell to 2-19.

The Indians, winners of three games in a row and the No. 2 seed in the region, host No. 3 seed Wren on Wednesday to open the Class 4A state playoffs.

"We are playing pretty well now," Gaffney coach Mark Huff said. "Hopefully, we can go into the playoffs with confidence."

But the Indians might go into the playoffs without starting guard Jazz Palmer, who sprained his ankle against the Bruins. Huff said Palmer, who had 11 points, is questionable for Wednesday.

Gaffney raced to a 23-9 lead at the end of the first quarter on Friday and extended the cushion to 19 points at the half.

Despite the comfortable lead, Huff said the Indians executed better in the second half.

"I thought our intensity was better in the second half," Huff said. "We pressed better. I thought the kids got after it more in the second half. We got off to a big lead and coasted too much. We stood around too much in the first half. (Lancaster) scored more points in the second half but I thought we played better."

The Indians shot 48 percent from the floor and limited the Bruins to just 33 percent from the field.

Gaffney also forced 21 turnovers.

Huff praised Woods and Dewberry, who came off the bench to lead the team in scoring. Both players grabbed five rebounds.

"They both came off the bench and played very well," the Gaffney coach said.