Carolina Forest to hold holiday hoops tourney, and Week 13 pick

Carolina Forest coach Brian Brunson will have three more games for his team than originally planned.

The Panthers boys basketball team will hold a holiday basketball tournament Dec. 20-22 at their home gym. So far, Conway, St. James, Loris, Aynor, Myrtle Beach Christian and Carvers Bay have committed, and Brunson said he is waiting on official word from one more team.

The event will include four games every day. And it will be a solid opportunity for most of the involved squads to get some extra work in before the crux of region play commences after the New Year.

For the Panthers, it will time to solidify a starting rotation that sees only one player -- senior guard Jordan Simbeck -- return from last year's playoff team.

***

Now that the area has only one team remaining in the state football playoffs, I was going to let my weekly picks fade into the sunset. But a last-second query about how I thought Myrtle Beach would do led me to continue.

If nothing else, I like my 50-50 shot of improving upon my season tally.

On to this week's pick:

Myrtle Beach 38, Berkeley 21

BREAKDOWN: Berkeley has the talent defensively to slow down a game significantly. And while that will likely close the gap of the final score, I have a hard time seeing Myrtle Beach fail to make another trip to Columbia for the Class AAA championship game. If nothing else, that trek won't be stopped this week.

Here were last week's picks, with actual score in parentheses; correct picks are bold-faced:

Goose Creek 37, Conway 28 (Goose Creek 28, Conway 14)
Myrtle Beach 60, Cane Bay 12 (Myrtle Beach 45, Cane Bay 22)

WEEK 12: 2-0. OVERALL: 76-30

The event will include four games every day. And it will be a solid opportunity for most of the involved squads to get some extra work in before the crux of region play commences after the New Year.

For the Panthers, it will time to solidify a starting rotation that sees only one player -- senior guard Jordan Simbeck -- return from last year's playoff team.

***

Now that the area has only one team remaining in the state football playoffs, I was going to let my weekly picks fade into the sunset. But a last-second query about how I thought Myrtle Beach would do led me to continue.

If nothing else, I like my 50-50 shot of improving upon my season tally.

On to this week's pick:

Myrtle Beach 38, Berkeley 21

BREAKDOWN: Berkeley has the talent defensively to slow down a game significantly. And while that will likely close the gap of the final score, I have a hard time seeing Myrtle Beach fail to make another trip to Columbia for the Class AAA championship game. If nothing else, that trek won't be stopped this week.

Here were last week's picks, with actual score in parentheses; correct picks are bold-faced:

Goose Creek 37, Conway 28 (Goose Creek 28, Conway 14)
Myrtle Beach 60, Cane Bay 12 (Myrtle Beach 45, Cane Bay 22)

WEEK 12: 2-0. OVERALL: 76-30