A pair of area boys basketball state title contenders went head-to-head on Wednesday night on day one of the Kingdom of the Sun at Vanguard (Ocala).
Defending 1A state champion Williston raced out to a 9-0 lead and led 1A state semifinalist Hawthorne, 23-9, at the end of the first quarter.
The Red Devils (11-0) held off a late rally by the Hornets (3-1) and advanced to the winners’ bracket with a 61-49 win.
“We’ve been getting out to quick starts, but the key is we got in foul trouble,” said Williston coach Jim Ervin. “That changed everything we were doing on both ends of the court.”
The Red Devils finished with five 3-pointers in the first half and still had a double-digit lead, 32-21, at the break.
In their last two games, Hawthorne was the aggressor, jumping out to a 17-2 lead at Bradford (Starke) and a 9-0 run in last Friday’s win at P.K. Yonge.
“That probably was the difference in the game, heck of a first quarter” said Hawthorne coach Greg Bowie. “We figured they were going to shoot the ball well. I saw a few clips of the games that they’ve played already and they shoot the ball. If you leave them open, they’re knocking them down.”
Sophomore Deandre Harvey scored eight of his 10 in the opening period and senior Reggie White made two of his four 3-pointers in the first quarter as the Red Devils won their 19th straight game.
“The second quarter we were able to stay connected to the shooters a little bit more and they didn’t really get a lot of those open looks, but if they had a wide open look, they pretty much knocked them down,” Bowie said.
Williston began to pull away in the third quarter, taking its largest lead, 48-30, on a left corner 3-ball by White, who finished with 14 points.
Hawthorne junior C.J. Ingram started slow with just six points at the half, but he did his best to keep the Hornets in it by scoring 12 of his game-high 24 points in the third quarter.
Down 15 entering the fourth quarter, 49-34, Hawthorne answered with a 9-0 run to get back to within six, 49-43, with 6:02 remaining.
Junior Decarion Debose (11 points) started the run with a 3-pointer, followed by buckets by senior Caleb Rollerson, who missed the entire third quarter due to four fouls, and Ingram, followed by a pair of free throws from senior Alvon Isaac.
“Lot of flashes from my guys,” Bowie said. “We have to put it together for four quarters, but if I can get the team that played the second quarter then it’s going to be a long night because we defended well in the second quarter.”
The Red Devils turned to 6’6 senior Kyler Lamb to seize back the momentum.
Lamb, who scored a team-high 22 points, hit a shot in the paint to end the run and then delivered a pair of two-handed dunks, the second of which was a spin move on the left baseline for a 57-45 lead with 2:35 to play.
“Kyler is just Kyler,” Ervin said. “He comes out every night and he’s quiet, you never know how many points he has. He’s a next-level player and we understand what we’re going to get every night out of him and that’s 20-plus and eight or 10 boards. He does a great job of controlling both ends of the court.”
Bowie said he got exactly what he wanted from Wednesday night’s matchup, a measuring stick against the state’s best.
“I’ve got a pretty good basketball team,” he said. “That game right there is just a game to show us where we’re at and come late January, early February, we’re going to be a scary team.”
It will be a quick turnaround for Hawthorne, which will play Mariner (Cape Coral) at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday.
Williston, which had lost 15 of the previous 16 meetings against the Hornets, will play host Vanguard at 6:10 p.m. on Thursday night.
“I’ve always wanted to be here but never was invited, which I don’t think I had a team good enough to be here” Ervin said. “It’s great to be here playing in the Kingdom. I appreciate the invite and hopefully we can take advantage of the situation now…we sure play with a lot of energy and confidence on the court and that’s the difference right now.”
Mariner lost to Green Tech High School (NY), 71-51, while Vanguard cruised past North Marion (Citra), 61-47.
The consolation and championship games will be on Saturday.
Scores
Day #1 – Wednesday, Dec. 27
Kingdom of the Sun (Vanguard High School in Ocala, FL)
Vanguard (Ocala) 61, North Marion (Citra) 47
Williston 61, Hawthorne 49
Hitchcock’s Challenge (Legacy Park in Alachua, FL)
Dunnellon 54, Oak Hall 52
Nease (Ponte Vedra) 51, Columbia (Lake City) 42
Santa Fe (Alachua) 2, North Fort Myers 0
Suwannee (Live Oak) 44, South Dade (Homestead) 30
Taylor County (Perry) 49, Eastside 44
The Rock 58, P.K. Yonge 46
Wiregrass Ranch (Wesley Chapel) 66, Buchholz 56
Thursday, Dec. 28
Kingdom of the Sun
9:30 a.m. – Hawthorne vs. Mariner (Cape Coral)
6:10 p.m. – Williston vs. Vanguard (Ocala)
Hitchcock’s Challenge
9:30 a.m. – Columbia (Lake City) vs. South Dade (Homestead)
11 a.m. – Buchholz vs. P.K. Yonge
12:30 p.m. – Eastside vs. Oak Hall
2 p.m. – The Rock vs. Nease (Ponte Vedra)
5 p.m. – Santa Fe vs. Suwannee (Live Oak)
