It was big brother versus little brother at Thursday night’s boys basketball game at Bud Seymour Gymnasium.
Santa Fe coach Glen Banks was an assistant under new Buchholz coach Elliot Harris when Harris led the Raiders to their first state championship game appearance in school history three years ago.
“Banks is like my little brother,” Harris said. “He used to coach the girls team and I recruited him to come over and be one of my assistant coaches.”
Advantage big brother, as the host Bobcats moved to 2-0 with a 53-46 win against the visiting Raiders (1-2).
“Elliot is like my big brother,” said Banks. “If he didn’t leave, I wouldn’t be the head coach at Santa Fe High School. The circumstances weren’t the best but it opened the door for me and I’m always forever grateful because he had a hand in choosing me to be his successor when he decided to step down.”
It was the first home win for the new Buchholz coach.
“Feels good,” Harris said. “It feels good to win again. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been in the saddle. It feels good to be back…”
The game was close early, but Santa Fe missed some opportunities at the charity stripe.
The Raiders were just 8-of-18 from the free throw line in the first half, including six misses in the opening quarter, as the two teams were tied 10-10 at the end of one quarter.
The Bobcats built their largest lead, 20-15, on a putback by sophomore Zion Newkirk (14 points) with 2:34 to play in the half, and they led by five points at intermission, 25-20, on a floater in the lane by junior Peyton Warring (14 points).
“I think that we played extremely hard,” Banks said. “This is a young team, a lot of new pieces, we’re still trying to figure out groups and who can play and who can’t play, but they play so hard and that’s all I can ask for night in and night out. The ball didn’t fall, we missed 12 free throws. If you make those, we’re close or winning the game.”
Buchholz extended it to a nine-point lead, 36-27, at the end of the third quarter thanks to the play of senior Palmer Walton.
Walton, who missed the second quarter due to foul trouble, scored seven of his 10 points in the third quarter.
“Palmer is probably the best player in our area,” Harris said. “Very skilled, very basketball savvy. We’re working, him and I, on tempering our temper. It was a very physical game for him but in the second half he settled in and was able to make some plays.”
Santa Fe built its largest lead at 45-33 in the fourth quarter but an and-one by sophomore Antonio Hall with 1:48 to play and a 3-pointer cut the deficit to single digits.
Then, senior Braylon Guyden (game-high 19 points) hit a 3-pointer with 1:11 left making it a two-possession game at 45-39.
“Braylon has the tools to lead this team,” Banks said. “He’s learning. Last year he was on the team with nine seniors and he was the youngest guy starting on the team. Now he’s the oldest guy with sophomores and freshmen. His brother (Latrell) played point for us all night long, he’s a ninth grader. Braylon is a leader for us and he’s learning to lead.”
However, the Bobcats made 8-of-10 free throws with under a minute to play, including 5-of-6 from Warring.
“With the new free throw rule, it’s hard to come back after that fifth foul because they’re shooting two every time,” Banks said.
Buchholz will travel to Fort White (2-0) on Saturday in a matchup of unbeaten teams, followed by a trip across town to rival Gainesville next Friday.
“The team played really well,” Harris said. “I told the guys we’re going to get everyone’s best. You’ve got to take your hat off to Santa Fe. Coach had them ready to play. They were very physical. It was good that we were able to handle pressure and hit free throws at the end to seal the win.”
Santa Fe will travel to Newberry on Monday and play its first home game of the season next Friday against P.K. Yonge.
