Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week: Brown's scoring push leads Sumter High to victory in Seahawk Invitational

Sumter High sophomore guard Rickell Brown has carved out a crucial role within the Lady Gamecocks.

After playing in a reserve role as a freshman, she has blossomed as a starter this season.

Last week, her offensive output helped lift Sumter to a pair of wins in the Seahawk Invitational at Hilton Head. That performance also earned her the Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week.

"It just pushes me to keep doing better," she said.

Sumter opened play in the Seahawk Invitational with a rare loss, falling to Bishop Keeny, a school out of Jacksonville, Florida. Brown scored nine points in the 53-46 loss and took some key lessons from the game.

"It just really opened our eyes up because we have to be more vigilant with these teams that shoot the ball well from the outside," Brown said of Bishop Keeny, who made seven three-pointers before halftime. "It just made me understand where I need to be on the court to stop those."

The Lady Gamecocks bounced back with a dominant 54-20 win over Seneca in their second game before cruising past East Side 59-25. Brown was proud of her defensive effort in the victories.

"When I'm going into a game, I focus on defense and I let my offense take care of itself," Brown said. "Defense makes offense happen, so really I had to play well on defense and just look for open looks for my teammates."

Brown played a crucial role in sparking the Sumter offense in the two wins. She scored 16 points against Seneca, matching Kiara Croskey for the team high. Brown followed that with 21 points against East Side.

"I started out making sure I did everything right fundamentally," Brown said. "I was hot, so they kept letting me shoot the ball."

Sumter High head coach Jeff Schaffer said the Lady Gamecocks did a great job of getting Brown going early. She took the game over from there.

"We were able to get some rebounds and get her going in transition," Schaffer said. "When the other team packed in on Ki(ara), we were able to get some skip-passes across the zone and she was able to knock down some shots."

These were two statement games for Brown early in the season. She may just be a sophomore, but she's looking to be a star for Sumter.

"I'm just trying to make a name for myself," Brown said. "Playing last year, I got a good bit of playing time, but now I'm just trying to make a name for myself. I just want to go out there and play with the confidence I know I have."

Schaffer is glad to see that Brown is starting to make that name for herself.

"Rickell was one of those players that was a bit under the radar coming into this year, but she's starting to pick up on what we're doing," Schaffer said. "That's only going to help our team that much more because they won't be able to key on Ki, pardon the pun, because we've got someone else who can score some points."

Sumter entered the season with high expectations after making an appearance in the SCHSL 5A state championship game last season. The Lady Gamecocks entered the season at the top-ranked team in 5A but have since slipped to fifth after tough losses other highly ranked teams in Rock Hill and Keenan. Brown said it's been important to face challenges early in the season.

"We just have to learn how to adjust to the mistakes we've made, because we're going to keep playing tough teams," Brown said. "We just have to go into games with the mindset to win and do what we have to do."

Brown hopes the wins in the Seahawk Invitational help springboard the Lady Gamecocks into a strong 2022. Sumter had the week off this week, which provided a nice chance to recharge after the tournament.

"We just have to get our mind right," Brown said. "Having this week off, we have to go in ready to think about all the things that we should do as we get back into the season so we can hopefully get back to the state championship."