Lions come to life
- Updated: January 4, 2023
After falling behind early, inspirational words from coach, player during a time out spark Munford’s victory; Jacksonville uses big third quarter to dump Springville
BOYS GAMES
Clay Central 49, Shelby County 44
Jacksonville 65, Springville 53
Munford 53, Wellborn 44
Oak Mountain 85, Oxford 66
Sand Rock 53, Collinsville 39
Sylacauga 76, Winterboro 40
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
There are plenty of ways to take over a basketball game. Some guys do it inside the huddle. Other guys do it out on the floor.
Sylvester Smith did both.
The Munford senior stepped out of the huddle in a first-quarter timeout to tell his teammates he didn’t much appreciate the way they were playing at the start of their game with winless Wellborn Wednesday night. Then he stepped on the floor and his presence sparked a big run that carried the Lions to a 53-44 victory.
“I just told them we had to pick it up and start playing harder,” Munford coach Riley Jones said. “I think it was just a matter of us not playing hard. I told them they were playing harder than us and we had to play harder.
“Sylvester kind of stepped up. When I called that time out, he came out of the huddle. He kind of stepped up and that’s kind of what got us rolling. He took the game in his hands a little bit and got us going.”
The Lions fell behind 11-2 in the first quarter and forced Jones to call time with 3:47 left to see it didn’t spread any more. He said his piece, then Smith said his, and the Lions looked like a totally different team when they returned to the floor.
They went on an 18-0 run – without allowing an opposing shot – to take control of the game.
“We kind of got ahead of ourselves, we weren’t playing our game, we were playing their game, going off their tempo, so it was really just getting the ball back and setting the tempo again and getting back on defense,” Smith said. “I pretty much just told them it was time to go. We were just sitting back and playing a little timid. I told them in the huddle this can go one of two ways. We can step on it and get in the game or we could lose and go home sad. Then I walked out of the huddle.”
He’s done that a lot of times on the football field, but only handful of times in basketball. He did it at Gaston a couple weeks ago and it produced results similar to Wednesday night.
Munford was down 18 in the first quarter of that one, Smith had his say, and the Lions rallied to win the game in overtime.
Ethan Tidwell was a force for Wellborn early. During the Panthers’ quick start, the 6-9 senior had five points, five rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots. He finished the game with 25 points, 12 rebounds, four steals and five blocked shots.
After the time out, the Lions scored the last eight points of the quarter to get back within one.
Panthers coach Justin Amberson subbed out all five starters to start the second quarter, partly in hopes of giving newly eligible Chris Williams and Ryan Wilson a taste of the game. He stayed with the second group through the next timeout even though the Lions continued to extend their lead.
He finally returned the starters to the game with 5:32 left in the second quarter, but by then the Munford lead was 20-11. Right after they returned, the Panthers got their first shot since the timeout, and Avery Odom knocked it down with 4:41 left in the half but they trailed 20-13.
“Honestly, I’m thinking about the rest of the season as well,” Amberson said. “Not overlooking tonight, thinking I’ve two guys who haven’t ever played a game. Obviously, the 18-0 run was frustrating. I wanted them to see it, but I thought I had two or three who were really gassed.
“Maybe I was wrong on that, but I thought they might have been a little more gassed than I thought so I just said give them a couple more minutes on the bench, because I knew what was about to happen the rest of the game and going deep in the fourth quarter who’s going to be able to stay the whole time. I should’ve pulled them earlier.
“I want to teach them how to finish a game. We don’t know how to do that yet, but we’re trying. We’ve played great three-quarter games before, multiple ones, we took a few guys to the fourth quarter. We’re at that wall right now of this is what it takes to finish the game. We’ve hit it like three or four times and we keep hitting it, but I don’t want to hit it any more. I want to knock it down. That was part of it. I was thinking I hope I didn’t gas them out too early.”
The Panthers cut their deficit to three several times in the second half, largely behind Tidwell’s 3-point shooting, but they never could overtake the visitors. Tidwell hit five 3-pointers in the game, four in the second half and three in the fourth quarter. He scored 20 of his 25 points in the second half.
But every time the Panthers got close, it was usually Javion White and B.J. Anderson who turned them back. White finished with 18 points and Anderson had eight. Lathan Stephens had 13. The Lions finally put it away with the last six points of the game after Tidwell’s final 3-pointe made it 47-44 with 2:35 to play.
“We have not had a pretty win yet,” Jones said. “We’re either going to squeeze one out or lose the close ones. They’re resilient. We’ve had about three games that could’ve gone either way and we could easily be 6-6. It was sloppy, we missed a ton of layups, we had a lot of turnovers, a lot of bad decisions, but we pulled it out at the end.”
MUNFORD – Demetrius Norwood 0 1-2 1, Sylvester Smith 2 1-7 5, Keyshawn Castleberry 1 0-0 2, Alex Petty 1 0-0 2, Lathan Stephens 6 1-2 13, B.J. Anderson 2 4-6 8, Austin Wynn 2 0-0 4, Kelby Tucker 0 0-0 0, Javion White 9 0-0 18. Totals 23 7-17 53.
WELLBORN – Conner Woodard 0 0-0 0, Xavier Parker 1 0-0 2, Avery Odom 2 0-2 4, Carlos Hubbard 1 0-2 2, Ethan Tidwell 10 0-0 25, Jackson Long 5 0-0 11. Totals 19 0-4 44.
Munford 10 14 14 15 – 53
Wellborn 11 7 11 15 – 44
3-point goals: Wellborn 6 (Tidwell 5, Long). Total fouls: Munford 9, Wellborn 15. Officials: Mallicoat, Winn, Lackey.
JACKSONVILLE 65, SPRINGVILLE 53: The Golden Eagles came out hot in the second half and won the third quarter 23-13 to pull away from a close game. John Broom led Jacksonville with 21 points, nine rebounds, two assists, four steals and three blocked shots. Caden Johnson had 10 points.
SPRINGVILLE – Brodie Frederick 7-11 1-1 15, Collin Lockhart 5-8 5-6 15, Ayden Walton 3-5 0-0 6, Ty Harrison 2-8 1-2 5, Ben Wood 2-8 0-0 5, Asa Morrison 2-3 0-0 4, Jake Isbell 1-2 0-0 3, Jake Conner 0-1 0-0 0, Brown Brown 0-2 0-0 0, Cade Bleason 0-1 0-0 0, Braden Henderson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-50 7-9 53.
JACKSONVILLE (14-4) – John Broom 9-17 2-3 21, Caden Johnson 4-9 1-2 10, Devin Barksdale 3-6 0-0 9, Ethan Duke 4-7 0-0 8, Cam Johnson 3-5 0-0 7, Dee Prothro 2-4 0-0 4, Jaleik Long 2-5 0-1 4, DaMonte Sinclair 1-2 0-0 2, Imoree Young 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 28-57 3-6 65.
Springville 14 12 13 14 – 53
Jacksonville 18 9 23 15 – 65
3-point goals: Springville 2-15 (Frederick 0-1, Harrison 0-5, Wood 1-3, Isbell 1-1, Conner 0-1, Brown 0-2, Gleason 0-1, Henderson 0-1); Jacksonville 6-23 (Broom 1-4, Cd. Johnson 1-3, Barksdale 3-6, Duke 0-2, Cm. Johnson 1-2, Long 0-3, Sinclair 0-1, Young 0-2). Rebounds: Springville 26 (Harrison 5); Jacksonville 34 (Broom 9, Prothro 6). Total fouls: Springville 12, Jacksonville 13.
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