Porter Ridge star Sidney Blackwell hopes to lead her team from no league wins to a title
When Sidney Blackwell was a freshman, her Porter Ridge High School girls’ basketball team endured a winless season in Southern Carolina 4A Conference play.
Now a 5-foot-10 junior guard who this summer committed to the University of Tennessee-Martin, Blackwell and the Pirates are considered a favorite to win the league title this season.
What has been the difference?
“I think it was beneficial as a young player to get kind of thrown into the fire,” Blackwell said. “I got a lot of playing time that got me ready for the rest of my years.”
Did it ever.
With Blackwell averaging 16.3 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.1 steals last season, Porter Ridge started slow under new head coach Morgan Brown before closing strong with a second-place Southern Carolina 4A regular season finish and a postseason victory that has created lots of momentum (and expectation) for this season.
“Winning conference and preferably being undefeated in the conference are our goals,” Blackwell said. “Everyone is returning except for two players and one starter. So I think that’s a pretty realistic goal for us.”
As a freshman, Blackwell averaged 11.1 points, 2.7 rebounds and 0.7 steals as the Pirates finished 6-19 overall and 0-10 in the league. Last year’s team finished 16-11 overall after a 1-6 start that included a five-game losing streak. A four-game winning streak followed as Porter Ridge suffered both league losses to champion Marvin Ridge, edged Winston-Salem Parkland 61-60 in a double-overtime, first-round road playoff win before being eliminated by Independence in the second round.
“The group last year knew it would be tough since it was my first year and we had some early-season injuries,” said coach Brown, a former Parkwood High School and Limestone College basketball standout. “It started off a little rocky with that losing streak and our non-conference schedule was tough.
‘But it prepared us for our conference schedule and we kind of hit our stride around Christmas break. With her (Sidney) having all of that experience the year before, I think it helped her during her sophomore year.”
Brown came to Porter Ridge after serving as a Parkwood boys’ basketball assistant and as a Forest Hills High girls’ basketball assistant. Blackwell says Brown “practiced the team a lot harder” than in her freshman year and said the hard work paid off as the Pirates finished the season strong.
“We just kept getting better and better,” Blackwell said.
Her favorite memory was the playoff win at Parkland.
“There was a lot of adversity, with double-overtime and all of that,” said Blackwell, who enters the season 293 points shy of 1,000 points for her career. “It was a fun game to play in and winning it made it better.”
Brown says she expects even more from Blackwell this season.
“I expect her to take on more of a leadership role this year,” Brown said of Blackwell. “She can do more than just scoring because she has a great all-around game.”
