St. Joe swamps Franklin, falls to Crossroads
It was quite a week for Port St. Joe Tiger Sharks boys basketball team on the hard court, as they swamped the Franklin County Seahawks 63-27 in the district semifinals at the Marion Craig Coliseum Feb, 3.
Five years earlier, St. Joe was blown out 79-29 by the Seahawks in Eastpoint, but this time the lopsided win was all Port St. Joe.
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 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, 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.
The win set up a formidable challenge for Port St. Joe on Friday night where they faced 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.
As it turned out, St. Joe fell 68-56, and had to settle for district runner-up. They are set to face Munroe in Quincy Wednesday, after the 18-6 Bobcats edged Blountstown 46-44 Friday for their district title.
Sophomore Jayden Reese led the team with 15 points, sophomore Zay Jenkins with 14 points and 11 rebounds, and Barber with 10 points, Senior Eli Harris scored nine, senior Kanaan Jefferson six and freshman Mase Larry with two.
“I spent a lot of time scouting St. Joe and their ability to shoot was one of my bigger concerns,” said Crossroads Coach Colin Anderson. “We tried to stay aggressive and keep them out of their offense because once it gets rolling, they’re hard to beat.
“Both teams came out strong shooting, we came out a bit more aggressive defensively,” he said. “We got a lot of steals, we hit a lot of shots early and that helped us get rolling. Mid third quarter, Port St. Joe made a run.
“We knew what they were going to do, they knew what we were going to do, and both teams were prepared. But one team needed to lose, unfortunately,” Anderson said.
“They guarded us pretty well. We did some things well but then we made some mistakes,” said Quinn. “They got up on us, we cut it down to six, and we turned the ball over a couple times. We got it down to six in the third quarter , but we turned the ball over the next two possessions and the next thing you know we’re down 10.
“They guarded us well, they played tough all night,” he said. “If we take care of business Wednesday we’ll probably be traveling to their place. We’ll probably change up what we did, we played them a zone the first half and man the second half. I thought we had good moments. We’ll come in and reevaluate.
“We need to make sure we take care of the one on Wednesday,” Quinn said.
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.