TOP STORIES 12/31/15

Hilton Sandestin Beach Basketball Blowout Day 1: Freeport wins in OT, Paxton falls by 12

By REID TUCKER
The 21st annual Hilton Sandestin Beach Basketball Blowout started off with a bang, as the two local teams on the boys’ side of the tournament found their way to the winners’ and losers’ brackets, respectively.
Tournament host Freeport rallied to win a harrowing comeback victory over the Rebels of Tennessee’s Tipton-Rosemark Academy, with the final score settling at 66-58 in the Bulldogs’ favor on the night of Dec. 28. The Paxton Bobcats, fresh off a stinging 56-45 loss to Cottondale on Dec. 21, were not so lucky at the Freeport post-Christmas tourney, falling 70-58 to the indomitable Pope John Paul II.
Freeport’s win propelled them headlong into to the long road to the final, with their first stop being an evening game on Dec. 29 against Notre Dame, whereas Paxton’s loss had the ‘Cats playing earlier that day. Check next week’s edition of the Herald for full game reports for those two contests and the rest of the tournament coverage as well.
First up, Freeport found itself in a desperate battle against the Rebs, who opened with 19-10 lead after Q1, but the Bulldogs were already fighting tooth and nail to stay in the game after ceding an early advantage in the period. Freeport’s shooting was tragically off in the second quarter – tragically because no fewer than 10 shots bounced off the rim when they seemed sure to swish – and the ‘Dogs suffered some pretty bad steals at the hands of the speedy Rebels defenders. Tipton-Rosemark extended its lead to 34-22 before the halftime buzzer, thanks largely to some truly towering 3-pointers from five feet behind the arc from Rebel scoring leader Preston Tysinor (16 points) and his team mates Johnnie Sanfratello and AJ Hightower.
The third quarter was a completely different story. The Bulldogs returned from the locker room undaunted and soon found their range while the Rebels’ shooting seemed to die off, allowing Freeport to come roaring back, closing the gap to 45-37 by the end of the period. Case Woodard, whose 37 points in the game made him Freeport’s leading scorer and indeed the best scorer of the first day of the tournament, continued to light up the net from the perimeter, propelling the Bulldogs to striking distance of their foes.
Tipton-Rosedale started off the fourth quarter with a mean counterattack in the form of back-to-back-to-back trays from Hightower, but the Bulldog D halted many further gains and helped Woodard draw three fouls – all of which returned free-throw baskets – whittle down the Rebs’ lead. With 1:32 remaining in regulation, Woodard put in a 3 to tie the game 54-all, and with 1:15 left he put his squad in the lead by two points after another trip to the stripe. Nevertheless, Tysinor, who had gone cold for most of the period, nailed a layup on a fast break to tie the game at 56 and send the contest into a riveting overtime.
As soon as Woodard opened with a 3 to start OT it was apparent that the Rebels were now on the back foot, taking poorly judged shots in a desperate attempt to wrest control back from the resurgent Bulldogs. It was to no avail, as Woodard so ably proved by simply driving to the basket for 2, drawing the inevitable foul, then drilling a free throw for extra padding on Freeport’s growing lead. He scored five more points from the foul line to secure the eight-point advantage Freeport needed to pass the ball around and run out the clock for the win in what had turned into a shocking switcheroo of a ballgame.
Paxton’s boys, on the other hand, didn’t have things nearly so good in their game against Pope John Paul II Academy. The veritable Papal Army got off to a great start by neutralizing Paxton’s big time scorers, the versatile and athletic duo of Grant Stewart (10 points) and Zach Varnum (27 points). Though the Bobcats established early on they could hit from 3-point range, Pope John Paul II’s proved they could too, only they could do it more often, leading to a 19-11 lead for the visitors at the end of the first period.
John Paul II’s scoring leader Matt Galvin (22 points) did most of his work inside, hammering out a trio of 2s in the first, but Varnum was like a whirlwind in the second, repeatedly slashing away at the basket for five layups, the last an and-1. That burst on offense just wasn’t enough though, as only Jack Hamilton scored otherwise, with a 3 near the buzzer, and the private school squad 31-23 at halftime despite what was for them a lackluster 14-point showing.
Galvin did almost the lifting in the third quarter, but his team still held onto a lead of 10 points or so up until halfway through the period. The combination of a brace of timely 3s from Garrett Bodie and yet more hard-charging layups from Varnum put Paxton just one point away from a tie ballgame not once but twice within the last minute of the quarter, with John Paul II eking out a 44-43 lead at the bell.
The fourth quarter was all but ferocious as John Paul II’s Jalon Cambridge drove into the basket time after time, picking up numerous fouls and consequently many free-throws for a total of 14 points in the final period alone. Cambridge’s evasive shooting caught Paxton napping as John Paul II went up by six points that soon turned into a 12 point difference by the final minute. The Bobcats simply couldn’t string together a sequence of plays to stop the defense exhibited by their private school opponents, and by the time the clock showed digits south of 60 it became clear the ‘Cats didn’t have a comeback in them, with the time running out on a 70-58 final.