By PATRICK CASEY
Walton senior shooting guard Peyton Betts connected on five shots from behind the arc to celebrate his birthday and lead the Braves in scoring with 15 points as the host squad knocked off West Florida 65-52 on Friday night.
The Braves jumped out to a 20-11 lead after the first quarter as Betts connected on a pair of long-range shots while sophomore Juanyeh Thomas added five points as Walton competed in their first varsity game since Dec. 23.
Andricus Moore provided the offense for Walton in the second quarter as he scored seven of his 11 points during that time as the Braves moved ahead 31-18 at intermission behind 50-percent shooting (12-of-24) from the field.
West Florida entered the contest with a 2-14 mark as the Jaguars have struggled with a difficult schedule and a season where they haven’t been able to make enough shots to close out games. Poor shooting was evident in the first half as the visiting squad made only 6-of-20 shots from the field but the Jags scored the first three points of the second half to get within 31-21 before Walton got the defensive pressure back on track, leading to a three-pointer by Dre Mathews and another by Betts. The Braves closed the quarter with a 45-29 lead.
Senior Nitro Gee scored five of his seven points in the final quarter with Cody Phillips adding five and Grady Williams four. The Jags posted a 23-20 scoring advantage over the final eight minutes but fell too far behind to mount a serious run at the lead to fall to 2-15 overall and 1-4 in District 1 of Class 4A.
Jamari Sharp led the Jags with 22 points while Kalia Davis had eight and Keyshawn Caldwell finished with seven. West Florida hit 18-of-49 shots from the field and 13-of-20 from the free throw line.
Turnovers were not a big factor as the Braves had 12 to 10 for the visiting Jags.
Walton shot 25-of-54 from the field and 8-of-15 from the free throw line to move to 10-4 overall and 3-0 in the district. Moore finished with 11 points and Phillips had 10 as the Braves earned a regular season sweep of West Florida.
Team Notes: Walton is riding a current six-game winning streak heading into district contests this week at North Bay Haven (Jan. 12) and Pensacola Catholic (Jan. 15). Walton is 7-4 all-time against West Florida in varsity boys basketball. West Florida won the junior varsity contest 40-31.