|
|
By MATTHEW BROWN
Journal Sports Writer
When the ‘cellar-dwellers’ of Region 1-AAAAA boys basketball met at the Houston County High Bear Den, there couldn’t be a lot of sympathy for each other’s plights in the 2009-10 season. Or was there?
“We were both in the same position coming in,” said Bears head coach Jody Dean after Houston County defeated Northside High 59-57 on Saturday. “We had only one region win and they had none.”
For Northside, this was the second loss in a row by the value of one made basket inside the court’s arc. On Friday, Lowndes High defeated Ken Price’s Eagles 87-85. Northside left the Den 0-5 in 1-AAAAA with one other loss coming by a single point to Tift County.
“Our records are not indicative of how good or bad we are,” said Dean, whose own club jumped to 2-4 in region play. That record includes a one-point home loss to Warner Robins High and a four-point setback against Coffee County.
In the second half of Saturday’s contest, it appeared that Houston County had control by holding Northside to a total of four points in the third quarter. The first half saw seven lead changes between the two city rivals, but the Bears never trailed again after taking the lead back early in the third.
The most Houston had the lead was nine points, 49-40, in the fourth. Dean had his team spreading the floor with a four-corner set, but Northside’s defense disrupted it and kept the home team from scoring a basket for a significant stretch of time. Justin Burnam’s offensive rebound score highlighted a 9-1 run that reduced the margin to one, 50-49.
Abandoning the spread, point guard Buddy Bivins gave Houston two baskets driving to the rim. Lorenzo Quichocho connected on a 3 for 57-51.
The Bears, with 1:26 remaining, turned the ball over, and Greg Fields’ penetration made it 57-54. Josh Gregory made both ends of a one-and-one (59-54) at 45.6 seconds, but then Major Linwood went to the line. He hit just one of two shots, but the Bears missed the front end of its next one-and-one.
With 21.7 seconds left, Northside scored for 59-57, and Linwood stole a loose basketball near the Bear bench. Fields missed a winning 3-point try, and the Eagles recovered an ensuing scramble for a timeout. There was only 0.7 seconds showing, and Lynwood got a 3 off, but it only hit the rim.
Nine different players scored for Houston County, Bivins leading the way with 12 points. Gregory had 11 points and Trey Grissett, starting at center for Jalani Phillips (visiting Purdue University as a football recruit), scored nine. Zack Smagh came off the bench and added nine of his own.
“No doubt, it was a team effort,” said Dean.
Northside actually did two players better in spreading out its scoring as 11 players earned points in the book. Debrion Radford and Fields each scored 12 points.
Radford nailed a 3-pointer in Northside’s opening 7-2 run. Houston County was able to break the Eagle press and tie the game 7-7. Shaun Williams both scored on a pass from Gregory and fed Grissett for the leveling basket.
Nate Clay’s stick-back put the Eagles back on top, but Bivins took in his own steal for the first of two consecutive scores. Joe Sturn of Northside hit a trey at the 22-second mark for another tie, and a tip-in at the buzzer gave the visiting team the lead, 14-13, going into the second.
Grissett began the next period with back-to-back scores, including a jumper from the foul line. It would be the Eagles, however, with the advantage most of the time, starting with consecutive 3s from Radford and Fields. With tough baskets in the lane from Radford and Gary Lowe off the bench, the Northside edge went as high as six, 28-22.
Robert Williams, another Houston reserve, keyed a comeback with two defensive boards and a driving lay-up against the press. On Smagh’s 3-pointer and A.J. Black’s stick-back, the Bears ran off nine in a row to lead 31-28.
The home team missed some foul shots in the last minute of the half, and with 14 seconds left Fields hit a trey as part of a 6-0 run to close it out at 34-31 Eagles.
Houston County hit the first eight points of the second half with a put-back from Shaun Williams and a basket hit by Quichocho over the reach of Northside forward Pierre Solomon. The Eagles didn’t score in the third until 3:22 on a put-back by Lowe. Adrian Ford, another reserve forward for the Bears, put in a missed shot with 11 seconds left for a 44-38 edge.
FRIDAY RESULTS
In Valdosta, Lowndes’ Brian Wright hit two 3-pointers to put the Vikings up by five on the Northside Eagles with four minutes left in regulation.
Radford hit a jumper at the 30-second mark to complete a run for the Eagles. It was a one-point game when Lowndes turned the ball over on a botched alley-oop play at 16 seconds.
Lynwood got into the lane on the ensuing possession and took a jumper. That shot missed as did a tip-in try. Viking Robert Powell, who had 27 points, got the eventual rebound for his team and hit the last of five made free throws in a row to close out the game.
Both Solomon and Fields had 20 points for Northside.
The Houston Bears hosted the other 1-AAAAA representative from Lowndes County, the Valdosta Wildcats, at the Bear Den. Even with Jay Rome scoring just 13 points, the Wildcats came out with the victory 78-61.
Dean said the strategy was to take Rome out of the game by fully denying him the basketball down low. The Wildcat center was also in foul trouble, but his team’s outside game more than made up for it with 10 made 3-pointers.
Bivins had 16 points, Gregory 13 and Quichochco 12.
|
|
|
|
|