Tiger Sharks swamp Seahawks, take on Crossroads Friday night
It’s been four years since the Port St. Joe Tiger Sharks were part of a lopsided 50-point victory in their rivalry against Franklin County.
On Dec. 20, 2020, St. Joe was blown out 79-29 by the Seahawks in Eastpoint.
Last night the reverse was true, at the Marion Craig Coliseum as this time, the Tiger Sharks overwhelmed the Seahawks 63-27 in the district semifinals.
Sinking three-pointers seemingly at will, Port St. Joe built a 38-8 lead at the half, the last bucket coming on a steal and a dunk by freshman Justus Barber.
The Seahawks remained in the locker room up until the time the Tiger Sharks had returned to the court, warmed up and were gathering in the middle of the hard court for the third quarter to begin.
Franklin County scored 10 points in the third quarter, but Port St. Joe tallied 20, and so the game entered the final stanza with the Tiger Sharks holding a commanding 58-18 lead, and Coach Sandy Quinn providing playing time for a number of athletes who typically see less of it.
The win set up a formidable challenge for Port St. Joe on Friday night at 7 p.m. ET where they’ll face the Crossroad Academy Scorpions for the championship of District 4 in Class 1A. The Scorpions, a private school team in Quincy, has a 13-9 record, which is misleading, as they did not face a single district team all season long and instead chose to take on only larger schools, everywhere from Class 2A to 6A.
“The kids have been focused ever since day one when we started this journey and toward the end of the season it seems like everything has been working good for us and everything’s been going our way,” said Quinn. “Kids have been playing hard on defense, have been shooting the ball well and tonight was just an outing that shows the hard work that we have put in all year long and hopefully we can keep it going for the next three games.”
The three-point shooting, especially by sophomore Jayden Reese was remarkable Wednesday night, and that’s all part of the strategy.
“We shoot a lot in practice and we run our offense where once we penetrate and we kick it, we want to take the three,” said Quinn. “We teach ‘no inside the three-point line twos, except in the paint,’ We want in the paint or threes, that’s the offense we teach and the offense we want.”
Quinn credited the team’s strong defensive play. “We sometimes play man, sometimes we play a 1-3-1, sometimes we play our matchup zone,” he said. “We threw our zone at them tonight and it paid off big time. Hopefully we can keep playing defense and keep shooting the ball well.
“We’re going to play a pretty good team that’s probably going to match up with us, better than anyone we’ve played all year,” Quinn said. “If we can defend well, keep them off the boards and rebound well and just play our game, like we’ve done all year. Hopefully we’ll be fine.”
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.