The Blackville-Hilda High Hawks had reason to be confident as they began the class 1A state basketball playoffs.

Blackville-Hilda overcame a couple of pluzzling late season home losses to win four of its last five games, including back-to-back victories over Williston-Elko High.

The team recent resurgence has coach Blackville-Hilda High coach Michael Beasley felling good about this team chances in the post season.

"Right now, we're playing as well as anyone in the playoff brackets," Beasley said. "We have a scrappy bunch and we fell all we have to do is go out and continue to play our style of basketball and the rest will take care of itself."

In the Feb. 16 opening round playoff game against,Lewisville High School, Blackville-Hilda High stayed true to its winning ways with a 73-61 victory.

Sparked by Javaris Dukes, the Hawks broke a close game open in the final quarter.

Leading 46-42 going into the fourth quarter, Blackville-Hilda took charge in the final eight minutes by outscoring Lewisville High 27-19.

Dukes took over in fourth quarter, scoring 12 points on six-of-seven shooting from the floor. Dukes finished with 16 points, nine assists and five steals.

"This was huge victory for basketball team. We defeated a very good Lewisville team tonight," Beasley said. "This was a total team effort tonight. Everyone stepped up and did their part. Overall I was very proud of our players. This was one of our best performances of the season."

Others shining for the Hawks included Jaleel Hammonds, who led the team in scoring with 20 points on seven-of-13 shooting from the floor.

Hammonds also came up at the free throw line in the fourth quarter, going five-of-five from the charity strip.

Rounding out the scoring was Miles Vice with 11 points, eight steals and four assists. Larry Johnson had three points and five steals. while Larry Smith added two points, four rebounds and four steals.