St. Joe snaps losing streak against Seahawks
You have to go back to a playoff game in February 2020 to find the last time the Port St. Joe boys defeated Franklin County on the basketball court.
That is until Friday night in Eastpoint, when a fourth quarter surge by the Tiger Sharks finished off what had been a tight game all night long, to secure a 70-58 victory in the team’s first meeting of the season.
From the opening tip, it had been a fierce high-energy back-and-forth ball game all night long, before a packed gymnasium.
The Tiger Sharks jumped to an 18-15 first quarter lead, and clung to a 33-30 lead to open the second half and a 54-49 going into the final stanza.
Sophomore Zay Jenkins, who led Port St. Joe with 19 points, got himself in foul trouble in the first three quarters, and the task of stepping up would fall on senior Elijah Harris, who finished with 16 points, including back-to-back three-pointers.
Harris “got to the rim, he was finishing,” said Tiger Sharks coach Sandy Quinn. “Jenkins finally got it going in that fourth quarter. Everybody kind of feeds off of how Jenkins plays and Harris kind of stepped up. He made a couple big shots and the rest was history.”
Jenkins, who hit just one of 11 from outside the arc, got his scoring off of a 5 for 7 from the field, and 6 of 9 from the foul line.
Senior Kanaan Jefferson and sophomore Jayden Reese each scored nine points, while freshman Justus Barber added six, including a thunderous dunk, and led with 10 rebounds.
Freshman Larry Mase added five points, sophomore Darion Cherry three and senior J.D. Becton one, plus eight rebounds, the same number as Jenkins.
“We knew it was going to be a battle because it’s a rivalry game and they gave us everything they have,” said Quinn. “Finally in the fourth quarter we pushed through and kind of put it away.
“We’ll take the win,” he said. “I think we have some stuff we have to continue to work on, and continue to get better.
“It’s been a long time coming; we haven’t won in a while,” Quinn said. “The crowd was into every shot; I think it was a great game.”
With the win. Port St. Joe rose to 12-3, while Franklin County fell to 10-4.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.