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Kenny Fey

Walhalla High School’s Meeshon Thompson pushes the ball upcourt against Seneca earlier this season in Walhalla. The Razorbacks will host the Apple Classic Holiday Hoops Tournament beginning next Monday and featuring teams from South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.

WALHALLA — During the second quarter of its win against Tamassee-Salem earlier this week, the Walhalla High School boys’ basketball team fell out of its normal rhythm with some unflattering results.

The Razorbacks abandoned their scrappy style of play to try their hand at being a jump-shooting team, which led to a five-point scoring output in the second period and left Walhalla head coach Hal Dunlap scratching his head.

“We’re the consummate do-work, blue-collar team for sure,” Dunlap said. “We’re just not very good if we’re not playing at a scrappy, clawing kind of pace. That’s got to be who we are.”

That’s the style that has served the Razorbacks well through the early part of the season, and it’s what Walhalla will look to get back to as it hosts the Apple Classic Holiday Hoops Tournament early next week.

The tournament will run from Monday through Wednesday in Walhalla, with the boys’ bracket coming to a close on New Year’s Eve with the championship game set for 9 p.m.

In addition to Walhalla representing the Golden Corner, both Tamassee-Salem and West-Oak will make the short drive to Walhalla to take part in the tournament in the boys’ bracket.

Other boys’ teams participating will be Dixie, Greater Gwinnett (Ga.), Hamilton Heights (Tenn.), Ninety Six and Rosman (N.C.).

And despite the slight slip-up earlier this week against Tamassee-Salem, Dunlap said the Razorbacks are feeling good coming into their annual tournament.

“We’ve had balanced scoring, and that’s been the most incredible thing,” Dunlap said. “We’ve got five or six guys who have scored about the same numbers of points, and it seems like we have a different person leading us in scoring every night.”

Some of those scorers include guys like Hunter Coker, Meeshon Thompson, Nate Williamson and Isaac Williamson, who have given the Razorbacks several reliable offensive threats throughout the first half of the season.

All of those guys will likely play a key hand in the Razors’ hopes to win their own tournament title, but Dunlap said his team will take a different approach to the Apple Classic than they would any other string of games this season, as he said it’s a chance to experiment and try some different looks.

“We want to try to look at some people who haven’t seen as much playing time in the first part of the year and see if we can get them ready for the region schedule,” Dunlap said.

The Razorbacks, like everyone else, will also be seeing action for the first time in a week or more, and the tournament will mainly serve as a way to get back into form before the start of region play early next month.

“On the other hand, you’re getting ready to take off a week almost,” Dunlap said. “We use the tournament really just to get our feet back under us and get back in game-playing shape.”

Games will begin a 9 a.m. each day and last through the evening. All-day tickets are $5.