Conway Tigers defeat Stall to Advance to Round Two of

Region Playoffs
By Teana Sherman
Entering the 5-A region playoffs following a tremendous season of 20-5 overall and 8-2 in the region, the
Conway High Tigers will host their first round of playoff business at home and face R.B Stall High School
out of Charleston, SC.

The tigers knew what to expect after advancing all the way to the third round in their previous season.
This loss truly gave the tigers that motivation to want to be in this playoff atmosphere again and make
history.

Although the tigers have been here before they were not expecting this to be an easy sweep knowing
that Stall was going to put a fight. Keeping in mind that if you do not win, you go home.

Region 6-5A player of the year Tonka Hemingway tipped in the game winning basket with just 3.6
seconds left to lead the Conway High School Tigers to a 57-55 playoff victory over R.B Stall High School
on Wednesday night.

Hemingway drew a charge forcing Stall to turn over the ball, giving the Tigers possession with just 15
seconds remaining in this tied battle. “It felt like the right thing to do, I took the charge because I knew
we needed the ball back in our possession,” Tonka Hemingway said.

Region 6-5A coach of the year Michael Hopkins immediately took a timeout following this crucial
turnover. As the tigers got the ball into the paint, Stall nearly forced a turnover and tried to take it the
other way to end the game. It quickly became a tassel between the two teams, causing the ball to end
up in the hands of tigers’ big man, EJ Washington, a 6-string freshman of the bench, and somehow
getting the pass to Hemingway resulting in a quick last second basket.

“I just knew it was coming to me and I knew I had to make it,” says Hemingway.

The intensity level of this game was very strong with the first quarter being the toughest of them all.
Both teams only managed to score a total of 12 points, with the score only being 7-5, and Conway in the
lead. From here the intensity was to only pick up even more, causing multiple lead changes throughout
the game.

“Our strongest target on the court are our post, so we knew we had to attack the paint with Tonka and
Tim (Timothy Steele),” says head coach Michael Hopkins. With R.B Stall also having a tough big man,
Seth Rivers, there was a constant battle down low. Rivers was very tough on the defensive end but could
not seem to create a flow for himself on the offensive end. Rivers fouled out in the 4 th quarter with
under two minutes to go taking a little less pressure off Conway in the paint during the last few minutes.

Conway High Tigers capitalized on this and were able to pull off the win against R.B Stall.

5-A Region champs, Conway, will advance to the second round of playoffs facing another tough
opponent, James Island, who is also from Charleston, SC in the tigers' den.