One of the best senior classes to ever wear a Newberry boys basketball jersey had their season come to an end in Jacksonville on Saturday night.
Top seed Andrew Jackson used a 9-0 run in the fourth quarter to race past No. 2 seed Newberry, 75-60, in an FHSAA Class 3A-Region 1 Final.
The Panthers, who finished 21-4 this season, were within a game of the school’s first final four, while the Tigers (28-1) advanced to their third straight state semifinal.
“Hostile environment, I thought our guys fought hard,” said Newberry coach Patrick Green.
The host Tigers couldn’t miss early.
After a right wing 3-pointer by senior Kai Washington (team-high 16 points) to tie the game at 5-5, Andrew Jackson senior Corenzes Dennard helped spark an 11-0 run with three buckets for a double-digit lead.
Dennard scored eight of his game-high 21 points in the opening quarter and added another seven, including a steal and a dunk, in the second quarter.
“It was a coaching decision on my end, watching film I didn’t think No. 11 was that good of a shooter so we kind of allowed him to take his shots early,” Green said. “He hit them, so we had to make adjustments to that, but as I told the kids some guys are going to hit shots. They’re in their gym. We know how that works.”
Down 15 in the second quarter, Newberry got within single digits by halftime.
Junior Darius Debose (9 points) drained a 3-pointer from the left wing to get within 12 with 2:55 to play in the second quarter, and Washington converted an and-one 30 seconds later to get to single digits at 33-24.
The Panthers ended the half with a 3-pointer from the top of the key by senior Henry Mathias (13 points) with 20 seconds left and trailed 38-30 at the break.
After scoring just two points in the first half, Newberry senior Juwan Scippio caught fire in the third quarter.
Scippio, who scored 11 of his 15 points in the third quarter, began the period with a left corner 3-pointer and made back-to-back 3s as part of a 10-0 run to pull the Panthers within two, 45-43, with 3:29 remaining in the third quarter.
“Just watching his body language, been knowing the kid since the ninth grade, I could tell he wasn’t playing his game at first,” Green said. “Just trying to do all I could to kind of get him to come out of that shell because we know what he can give us on the defense and the offensive end, but what a great player.”
Washington was able to get to the free throw line six times after driving inside and drawing contact. He made 9-of-11 free throws.
“The kid is unstoppable,” Green said. “During the summer, he was our one point guard we had during camp, and nobody could stay in front of him then, and still can’t.”
Late in the third quarter he got to the line again and converted two free throws to make it a 1-score game, 51-48, with 53 seconds left in the quarter.
“I feel like my goal every game is to try to be that guy with energy, attacking downhill, making my open shots, uplifting my teammates,” Washington said. “We talked about a game plan before the game, and that was attack, attack, attack, and take advantage of the open shots, so that’s what I try to do throughout the whole game.”
It was a two-possession lead in the fourth quarter for the Tigers, 59-53, when Andrew Jackson went on a 9-0 run, which was highlighted by a steal and a dunk by senior Terrell Mosely II (15 points) and an alley-oop dunk by Dennard.
Presbyterian signee Langston Hackworth (6’8, 230), who finished with 17 points, began the run with a right wing 3-pointer, and Mosley’s bucket ended the run for a 68-53 lead with 4:06 to play in the game.
“It was tough,” Washington said. “It’s really hard being in a crowd that’s always picking at you, nitpicking, screaming, yelling. We did our best to try to fight the adversity and there were times where I felt like we could have pulled away but we fell short at the end of the day.”
Washington was one of nine seniors on the Panther’s roster.
“Best team I’ve ever coached by far, best group of seniors Newberry has ever had,” Green said. “Those guys have multiple times broken a school record. I think when they were freshmen or sophomores, they broke a school record, and then they broke it again last year, so just amazing kids. You couldn’t find a nicer group of kids.”
FHSAA basketball scores – Saturday, Feb. 28
Boys Region Finals (area teams in bold)
Class 6A-Region 1
2 Lake Howell (Winter Park) 64, 5 Buchholz 51
Class 5A-Region 1
1 Fleming Island (Orange Park) 69, 6 Columbia (Lake City) 45
Class 4A-Region 2
2 Atlantic (Port Orange) 58, 4 Eastside 46
Class 3A-Region 1
1 Andrew Jackson (Jacksonville) 75, 2 Newberry 60