Tiger Sharks to face Seahawks in Friday showdown
As is dictated by tradition, this Friday evening the bleachers at the Nest gym in Eastpoint will be filled with exuberant fans as the Port St. Joe Tiger Sharks and the Franklin County Seahawks face each other for the first time this season on the hardcourt.
And of course, as is usually the case, there’s already the psych starting, particularly on the visiting Tiger Sharks side of the stands.
“We’ve lost a lot” to the Seahawks in the last couple years, said Tiger Sharks captain junior Elijah Harris, following Friday’s 58-40 trouncing at home against the 13-1 Bethlehem Wildcats. The victory raised the team’s record to 9-3.
“But it’s going to be a lot different this year, a lot different,” he continued. “There’s going to be a big deficit; it’s going to be bad. We’re a stronger team and we’re more mature than we’ve ever been.”
Based on Port St. Joe’s first half performance, the victory was by no means assured, as the Tiger Sharks clung to a slim 24-21 lead going into the third quarter.
But freshman Mase Larry hit back-to-back three pointers en route to a 4-of-5 night from outside the arc, to lead the team with 14 points.
“He’s a freshman who can come in off the bench and we know he can shoot the ball well,” said Port St. Joe Coach Sandy Quinn. “I told my staff we got to get him in and I guarantee they kick it to him, he’s going to knock those shots down there.
“He’s always been consistent,” he said. “We’re just trying to get him more touches, and he’ll make a lot of shots.”
Quinn stressed that “we’ve been preaching four quarters the whole year, and (keeping) them at 10 points or less a quarter, we have a great chance at winning the game. The first half was a little slow, and the second half we picked it up and started playing a little harder, and tried to play some defense, and the rest is history.”
Larry led the team in scoring, with Harris scoring 10 and sophomore Zay Jenkins with nine, plus six rebounds, 10 assists and three steals. Senior J.D. Becton tallied seven points, and sophomore Jayden Reese six, plus four rebounds and two steals.
Freshman Justus Barber, displaced with his family from Tampa, scored four points, but brought down seven rebounds and had three blocked shots.
Sophomore Darion Cherry and senior Kanaan Jefferson each scored three, while senior Jama Leslie added two.
The team shot 75 percent from the free throw line, and 52 percent from the field.
Friday’s win was the third straight for the Tiger Sharks as they defeated Sneads 65-36 in an away game Dec. 27, and downed Cottondale Dec. 18 59-55 in an away game in Chipley.
Against Sneads, Jenkins had a season-high 32 points, plus seven rebounds, followed by seven for Harris, plus six each for Reese, Barber and Becton. Senior Elijah Robinson scored four, Cherry two and Jefferson one.
The game against Cottondale was a far closer affair, as Jenkins nailed 17 points and six rebounds, Harris 13 points and Reese 11. Jefferson added six, Larry and Becton each five, and Barber two.
Franklin County is going into Friday’s game after losing two of their last three, dropping their record to 10-3.
They fell 65-62 to Cottondale in Chipley Dec. 27, and then downed Graceville 57-53. On Jan. 3, they were edged by North Bay Haven 55-53 in Panama City.
Against Cottondale, the Seahawks 31-22 at the half, but knotted the Hornets with 19 points each in the third quarter and outscored them 21-15 in the final stanza, still not enough to secure the win.
Quinn cautioned against his surging Tiger Sharks being overconfident.
“We know it’s going to be a tough battle as usual,” he said. “We know we got to bring our A game and what we’ve seen so far is they play hard.
“They’re not just going to lay down, they’re going to come out and they’re going to guard us so we just gotta come out and hopefully execute and hopefully we can come out of there with a win,” he said. “We’re looking forward to a packed house, a great environment, because we all love it, for the kids and for the parents.
“There are two games that everybody circles on their calendar every year, Franklin and St. Joe, because they want to be a part of it,” 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.