- Buchholz defeated Eastside 62-51, led by Lucas Bhatia's 22 points and 11 three-pointers made by the team on Friday night.
- Eastside's Jermaine Gladin scored 14 points off the bench, while Eastside ended with a 9-0 run in the final quarter.
The opening two minutes of Friday night’s boys basketball game between Buchholz and Eastside started slow.
However, the visiting Bobcats used an 8-0 run late in the first quarter to propel them to a 62-51 win at Herman “Pop” Williams Gymnasium.
“Overall, we shot the ball really well, but from the beginning of the game, defensively, we played really well,” said Buchholz coach Elliott Harris. “They had seven points in the first quarter, and a couple of them were just throw up shots, so they just went in, but I think we really established at the beginning how stout we were going to be defensively, and that led to the offensive stuff and wide-open shots. When we’re playing both sides of the floor, it’s pretty hard to beat us.”
The visiting Bobcats won the opening tip, but after working patiently to get a shot off they turned it over 1:06 into the game.
The Rams used almost a minute of the clock before sophomore Kruise Crumedy (11 points) hit a fall away bank shot left of the lane for a 2-0 lead with 6:05 remaining in the opening quarter.
It would end up being the only lead of the game for the Rams, who lost for the sixth straight time in the series.
Buchholz (13-5) took the lead for good on a deep 3-pointer from the top of the key by senior point guard Lucas Bhatia for a 3-2 lead with 5:33 to play in the first period.
Bhatia, who extended the lead to 5-2 on a layup, buried a left wing 3-ball for a 10-6 lead and senior Jamison McTureous (8 points) added a steal and a layup for a 12-6 lead as Eastside called timeout with 2:48 left in the quarter.
Another three from the top of the key by Bhatia (game-high 22 points) extended the lead to nine, 15-6, with 1:56 remaining, before Eastside junior Braeden Brockington made one of two free throws to end the scoring run.
The lead reached 14 at 21-7 on a left wing 3-pointer by Bhatia, who finished the night with six shots behind the arc.
“Lucas is big for us,” Harris said. “In the last couple of games, teams have tried to take him out of the game and just be real physical with him, and I just try to encourage him to just stay in it and take shots. You know they’re going to be physical, but you’ve got to still take shots, and he hit some big shots for us today.”
Eastside (7-7) answered with its own 7-0 run on a reverse layup by Crumedy, a left wing 3-pointer by Crumedy, and a layup by sophomore Jermaine Gladin, who scored a team-high 14 points off the bench.
But once again Buchholz pulled away, turning a 21-14 lead into a 29-14 advantage.
Junior Jacob Bromirski had two of his 17 points on a floater, senior Ezra Olmedo (11 points) drained a 3-pointer from the left corner, and Bromirski knocked down a trey from the top of the key.
Bromirski connected on four long-range shots, including a deep 3-pointer from up top with four seconds in the half to give the Bobcats a 33-17 lead at halftime.
Buchholz finished the night with 11 3-pointers.
“It is part of our style,” Harris said. “We want to shoot a high volume of three pointers, and we shoot it at a high clip. We have four guys that can shoot it, really shoot it – 40%, 45%, 38%. We’ve got some guys who really shoot it so it’s hard for people to pick their poison and go ‘we’re gonna take away that three pointer,’ and we spread the floor really well. And when it’s an open shot, I tell my guys, I give them all the confidence in the world to take that shot.”
The Bobcats took their biggest lead, 47-26, on a 3-pointer by Bhatia from the left wing with 3:05 to play in the third quarter.
The Rams finished the game on a 9-0 run as Gladin scored 10 of this team’s 17 points in the fourth quarter.
Junior Jaivion Williams added 11 points for Eastside, which will travel to Lake Weir (Ocala) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
Buchholz will host Newberry, the No. 11 overall team in the state in the FHSAA rankings, at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The game will be broadcast (audio only) on Mainstreet Daily News beginning at 7:15 p.m.
“It’ll be a tough one, but it’s going to be a good one,” Harris said. “The Panthers are a really good team, but we are too. They beat us earlier, but we’re not the same team as we were at the beginning of the season…it’s going to be a slug fest at home on Tuesday.”
