Mike Ridaught
During the postseason the Williston boys’ basketball team has ridden its offense, which was averaging 80 points per game in four playoff appearances.
On Friday morning at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, the Red Devils turned to their defense in the FHSAA Class 1A state semifinals.
The defending state champions forced 24 turnovers, including 14 in the opening half, and pulled away for a 63-30 win against Chipley in a rematch of last year’s state title game.
It was a season-low in points for the Tigers (19-12), who were led in scoring by senior Albert McKinnie (10 points).
Williston (28-2), which scored the first seven points of the game, only scored 10 points in the opening quarter.
However, Chipley didn’t score its first points of the game until senior Ta’Shaun Sims scored with 35 seconds left in the period.
Chipley was held to just 11.8% shooting (2-of-17) in the first half and finished the game shooting just 22.7% (10-of-44).
“We believe in defense,” said Williston boys basketball coach Jim Ervin. “That’s the reason we held them to where they were at. We know our offense is going to eventually start clicking…offensively, playing on this stage is different from anywhere else we’ve played this season with the open court so it’s really tough for them to shoot the ball and finish. They got that jitter out maybe in this first game for us.”
Senior guard Reggie White (10 points, four assists, two steals) drained a 3-pointer on the left baseline with 15 seconds to play to give Williston a 10-2 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Red Devils took their first double-digit lead at 13-2 on a right-win 3-ball by White a minute into the second quarter.
After Chipley cut it to single digits at 13-4 on a basket by Izayah Eldridge, White added a finger roll and sophomore Deandre Harvey (nine points, four rebounds, two assists) followed with a dunk for a 17-4 advantage.
Despite four starters picking up three fouls each in the first half, Williston led 26-9 at the half.
But White, senior Aramys Rodriguez (six points, eight rebounds, four assists, four steals), senior Javon Brown (10 points, nine rebounds, six steals), and Harvey never fouled out of the game.
“At halftime, we made a few adjustments,” Ervin said. “I talked about it in the pregame, how special they are as basketball players, and I’ve never coached a team that’s special with a high basketball IQ, so adjustments were easy for us. That was the difference, staying out of foul trouble and the kids just playing the way they play.”
Although he would later pick up his fourth foul, Lamb (game-high 21 points, seven rebounds, six assists, three steals, three blocks) helped pick up the slack after his teammates and fellow starters exited midway through the second quarter.
He scored seven of his points in the second quarter and finished the half with five rebounds, three assists and three steals.
“I think we all started out slow,” Lamb said. “We just had to get the nerves out. We knew that defense was going to turn into offense, so we trusted our defense and eventually, we started scoring the ball how we were supposed to. In the second half, the biggest difference was we settled down and ran through our sets, trusted in our team to get through and score the ball.”
Top seed Williston will defend its state title in the Class 1A state championship game at 8 p.m. on Saturday against Hilliard.
The No. 2 seed Flashes (25-2) defeated No. 3 seed Crossroad Academy (Quincy), 49-36, in the other state semifinal.
“It feels great knowing that we’re in the state championship, but we’ve still got to win it in order for it to be an accomplishment from the goal we’ve been trying to reach since the beginning of the season,” White said.
