Malcolm in the middle
- Updated: February 17, 2021
Anniston’s Carlisle responds to benching in last game with 31 points, 11 rebounds in Bulldogs’ subregional win over Jacksonville
By East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE – A lot of eyebrows were raised last week when Anniston coach Torry Brown pulled his biggest offensive threat in the third quarter of a tight area championship game and didn’t put him back in even though the Bulldogs appeared to need him.
Was the senior shooter hurt? Had he found his way to the coach’s doghouse during the game? The explanation was simply “coach’s decision.”
Come to learn it all had to do with the way the Bulldogs wanted to play and Carlisle didn’t quite fit into it that game.
But he was back in the lineup Wednesday night and he returned with a vengeance. Carlisle scored 31 points – more than half his team’s total – and grabbed 11 rebounds in leading the Bulldogs over Jacksonville 60-49 in the Class 4A sub-regionals.
Anniston now plays the winner of Thursday’s New Hope-Randolph game in Friday’s Sweet 16.
“We’ve sort of had to, the last couple weeks, go back to how we used to play when we first got to Anniston – with two big guys and three guards,” Brown explained. “I got him out the other day because he just didn’t know a whole lot about what we were doing. He’s had some more practice time to get adapted to it. This is more of a ball movement/player movement thing and he’s getting it, slowly but surely.
“I knew sooner or later we would have to play that way to get some points in the paint, it just so happened the White Plains game was first game we actually tried to do it. The kids have learned only half of what they needed to learn and he went back to what he’d normally do with him and (Antonio) Kite and I didn’t feel at the time that was going to work.”
Carlisle hit 12 of 20 shots from the floor, including 4-of-14 from 3-point range. The arc was a popular spot to play from in this one – the Bulldogs were 7-of-24 from long range, while Jacksonville was 11-of-39.
“He was able to pick his spots tonight,” Brown said. “It helped that Jacksonville was playing a zone; that was the biggest part of what he was doing. He came out tonight and played well and with a lot of energy. I thought the quality of shots was really good.”
The Bulldogs needed every bit of it because Kite, their recognized leader, was coming back from arm injury that kept him out of the White Plains game entirely. He started Wednesday, but played only seven minutes.
As long as the Bulldogs had a double-digit lead Brown felt comfortable in getting his junior guard out of the game.
“It was fine during shootaround,” Brown said. “Before the game he wanted to tape it and we taped it. I don’t know if the tape irritated it of what, but once we got up we saw not reason to play him if we didn’t have to. We put in him the second half when we needed him, but as long as we were ahead double digits we felt comfortable about getting him out.”
Besides, it was hard to take any of the second group out with what they were doing in the second quarter. Taishun Hall, Tadyn Jones, Carlisle, Troy Hall and Kamron Sandlin held Jacksonville to six points in the quarter while helping extend the lead to 15 points at halftime.
John Broom and Nathan Barnwell led Jacksonville with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Omarion Adams scored five points, but he grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.
Anniston 60, Jacksonville 49
ANNISTON – Malcolm Carlisle 12-30 3-5 31, Kamron Sandlin 5-7 0-1 10, Troy Hall 4-5 0-2 8, Tadyn Jones 2-5 0-0 6, Mark Toyer 1-4 2-4 5, Miciah Myles 0-0 0-0 0, Taishun Hall 0-1 0-0 0, Antonio Kite 0-1 0-0 0, Talib Christian 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-53 5-12 60.
JACKSONVILLE – John Broom 5-11 0-2 14, Nathan Barnwell 5-6 2-4 12, Caden Johnson 3-11 0-0 9, JaeTaj Morris 3-7 0-0 9, Omarion Adams 2-8 0-0 5, Cam Johnson 0-3 0-0 0, Jaylon Prater 0-1 0-0 0, Julian Hill 0-2 0-0 0, Coby Zackery 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-51 2-6 49.
Anniston 19 13 9 19 – 60
Jacksonville 11 6 13 19 – 49
3-point goals: Anniston 7-24 (Carlisle 4-14, Sandlin 0-1, Tr. Hall 0-1, Jones 2-4, Toyer 1-3, Kite 0-1); Jacksonville 11-33 (Broom 4-7, Cd. Johnson 3-9, Morris 3-7, Adams 1-5, Cm. Johnson 0-3, Hill 0-2). Rebounds: Anniston36 (Carlisle 11); Jacksonville 35 (Adams 12). Total fouls: Anniston 6, Jacksonville 12.
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