High school basketball roundup

Going into Christmas break, it seemed like anyone’s guess which boys basketball team would emerge from a muddled Region 6-4A field.

May River started 17-0, albeit against a soft early-season schedule, Hilton Head High turned heads with some impressive non-region wins, and everyone knows better than to sleep on Bishop England.

And then there was defending region champion Bluffton, but the Bobcats were still finding their identity when the calendar flipped to 2026. Two of their top three scorers from a 23-3 squad a year ago — 3-point specialist Jamari Stewart-Manning and uber-athlete Brandon White — were lost to graduation, and multi-sport stars Carnell Warren and Aeden McCarthy bailed early in the season to turn their focus to playing college football.

Third-year coach Bradley Gabriel was left scrambling to put together the pieces around senior point guard Harry Skinner and mold a rotation that made sense.

The Bobcats were a work in progress.

Bluffton traversed an easy path to the finals of the John Drafts Battery Creek Classic before falling in overtime to May River, a sign that the Bobcats were still in the mix for a region title, then they breezed through the Bobcat Classic and proceeded to rattle off 12 consecutive wins — and counting.

After a 76-53 rout of visiting Beaufort High on Jan. 27, the Bobcats sat at 17-4 overall and a perfect 6-0 in Region 6-4A with a trip to rival Hilton Head High looming. Already holding a two-game lead over the second-place Seahawks — and with a head-to-head win already in hand — the Bobcats very well could clinch the region title before you read this.

In other words, it’s almost inevitable, and that was far from the case when the region slate began.

Gabriel challenged Hilton Head Christian Academy transfer Ethan Foster to up his rebounding game, and the junior has become a force on the boards along with junior Malcolm Gordon and senior Isaiah Gadson.

Gordon has made the biggest jump, going from a role player with minimal production a year ago to a monster who averages 12 points and 8.3 rebounds. Gadson has embraced his role, ripping down 8.8 rebounds per game and averaging 1.8 blocks, and sophomore guard Luke Carens has hit some big shots. 

No longer the brash sharpshooter who was dubbed “Dirty Harry” during his early days at Hilton Head Christian Academy, Skinner has evolved into a coach’s dream, a take-charge point guard who elevates everyone around him. He carries himself with a healthy mix of confidence and humility and values winning above his personal accolades, dishing out 6.6 assists per game in addition to a team-high 21.4 points per contest.

Skinner flirted with greener pastures, trying on a prestigious prep school program for the summer — at Gabriel’s suggestion — before coming back to finish his sensational high school career as a Bobcat, and perhaps wash away the bad taste from last year’s 50-44 loss to Wilson in the second round of the Class 4A playoffs, ending Bluffton’s season short of the goal.

It would have been hard to imagine a month ago that this year’s Bobcats would outlast last year’s talented squad and advance past the second round of the playoffs, but Bluffton has climbed to No. 4 in the S.C. Basketball Coaches Association’s rankings, so maybe Skinner and Co. will surprise us again in March.

Justin Jarrett is the sports editor of The Island News and is the founder of Lowco Sports. He has a passion for sports and community journalism and a questionable sense of humor.