Team wins playoff game day after Kingstree girls’ basketball coach killed in car wreck

A day after Kingstree Senior High School girls’ basketball coach Sonya Burgess was killed in an apparent hit-and-run wreck, the team united and won a playoff game in her honor.

Burgess, 39, was traveling south on U.S. Highway 52 about 6:30 p.m. when she swerved to avoid a head-on collision with an unidentified vehicle, S.C. Highway Patrol Senior Trooper Bridget Wyant said. Burgess then overcorrected, which caused the 1999 Ford Expedition she was driving to flip, she said.

Burgess then stepped out of the vehicle and into the road, where she was struck by a second unidentified vehicle, Wyant said. That vehicle left the scene, she said.

Burgess was pronounced dead at the scene, Williamsburg County Coroner Harrison McKnight said.

It was unclear Monday night whether a playoff game between Kingstree and Lake City High School’s girls basketball teams would go on.

“We contacted Kingstree and they decided they wanted to go on and play,” Lake City High School Athletic Director Jim Rowell said Tuesday.

“The team members and the principals decided to meet and discuss what happened. They decided as a team that they would like to play in honor of their coach. They wanted to do what she taught them to do, by being strong and defying the odds,” district spokeswoman Bonnie King said.

Three minors were traveling with Burgess when she was killed, Wyant said. Paramedics transported them to Williamsburg Regional Hospital, where they were treated and released, McKnight said.

Kingstree Senior High School’s website lists Burgess as a varsity basketball and volleyball coach. After winning Tuesday’s game, Kingstree advances to the Lower State Championship game in March, facing Bishop England.