For the second straight year, Lexington High School was crowned Lake Murray Tipoff Classic champion.

The Wildcats rolled past Swansea 84-51 Wednesday afternoon at Wildcat Gymnasium.

The victory completed a dominant 3-game run by Lexington in which its average margin of victory was 45 points.

“We did a good job of trying to put it all together,” Lexington head coach Elliott Pope said. “We talked about trying to play for 32 minutes today and they did that. Swansea hit a couple of tough shots, hit some contested threes. We had some defensive miscommunications, but we continued to play. That’s what we’re kind of preaching to our guys. Play through it, get better at it. We just keep playing, it will come out as how it needs to if we give good enough.”

The Wildcats (3-0) got a near-record performance from Caulder Bell. The sophomore guard hit 9 3-pointers, including five in the fourth quarter, tying him with Zach Richardson for second most in a single game in school history.

Darius Bryant, the school’s all-time leading 3-pointer shooter, made 10 in a game.

Preseason S.C. Basketball Coaches Association Elite guard Cam Scott had 12 points to finish with a 26 points per game average at the Tipoff. Jose Figueroa had 10 points for Lexington.

Levi Taylor led Swansea with 21 points and Otis Crawford had 10.

Tip Off at the Dam

Cross Creek High School out of Georgia entered The Swamp and won the Tipoff at the Dam.

The Razorbacks handed defending state and tournament champion River Bluff a 80-53 loss.

The Gators (2-1) were competitive through the first three quarter. A 30-10 fourth quarter turned the game decidedly in Cross Creek’s favor.

Antoine Lorick scored 21 points, Jaquez Ellison had 20 and Dontrel Smith finished with 16 to lead the Razorbacks.

Junior Shamar Wilson led the Gators with 17 points and senior Preston Hearn added nine. Despite the loss, River Bluff head coach Benjamin Lee was pleased with the production of his younger players during the preseason tournament.

“I learned a lot about the group,” he said. “All of the people that we lost off of last year’s team, this was probably the most in question I’ve ever been about a team coming in. So being able to get out here to get some rotation things figured out, seeing how some kids will compete in a line of fire, I learned a lot about this group.

“We’re in a better place moving forward than we were coming in.”

Dutch Fork finished fifth in the tournament with a 2-1 record, while co-host Chapin was winless.