Sandies Win a Thriller in OT

Grapeland 59 Krum 55

By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter

GRAPELAND – They certainly saved the best for last on the first day of the Houston County Holiday Basketball Tournament.

In the Crockett half of the bracket: Baytown Lee blew out Elkhart, 85-41; Lovelady ran past Trinity, 98-79; and Crockett picked up a fairly easy win over Jefferson by a score of 75-63.

Meanwhile in Grapeland, Van Vleck defeated Onalaska 66-53 and Fairfield took down Edna 65-60. That left one game on Thursday as the Grapeland Sandies took on the Krum Bobcats.

While Grapeland has a rich basketball history, it pales in comparison to Krum’s. The Bobcats have five state championships under their belts (1971, 1978, 1994, 1996, and 1998) and a coach – Doug Boxell – who has coached six state championship teams.

Boxell won a state championship with Santo, another with Sudan and three with Ponder. His sixth came earlier this year as he led the Bowie Jack Rabbits to the Class 3A title.

In other words, the Krum Bobcats have one heckuva a basketball pedigree. Oh and was it mentioned that Krum is a 4A school?

It’s just like they say, however, that’s why they play the game as Coach Cannon Earp led his Grapeland Sandies to a 59-55 OT win.

Earp, who is developing his own legacy with multiple state championships as the Grapeland golf coach and two appearances (one as an assistant) in the state basketball tournament, watched his team get off to a slow start in the first quarter as the Sandies fell behind 19-13.

BJ Lamb kept Grapeland in the game with nine first quarter points while Rick Frauenberger had the other four.

The Bobcats were led by Carter Marquis who had 13 points while Dallin Andrus, Brent Boone and Trey Smith all had two.

The Sandies mounted a comeback before halftime and cut the lead to one by the end of the second quarter. Frauenberger and Tyrin Wiley both had five while Lamb and Deco Bryant both had three to make the score 30-29 at the break.

Marquis continued to pace the Bobcats as he dropped in seven. He was joined by Boone and Abe Dillon with two apiece as the two teams headed to their respective locker rooms.

The third quarter was almost disastrous for the Sandies as they only scored four points on a pair of twos from Lamb.

Fortunately for Grapeland, the Sandies’ defense was able to contain Marquis as they held him scoreless in the third. Boone picked up his slack with six points while Smith and Trey Cole both had two-pointers to make the score 40-33 with eight minutes remaining in the game.

As the fourth quarter got underway, the Sandies dug deep within themselves and mounted a stirring comeback. Grapeland opened the period on an 11-0 run to take a 41-40 lead at the 4:49 mark of the fourth quarter.

Grapeland pushed the lead to three with 1:49 left to play, but the Sandies were unable to hang on as Krum tied the game at 47 with under 15 seconds left in regulation. Grapeland had its chances to win in regulation but couldn’t get a shot to drop. As a result, the two teams decided to give their fans a little bonus basketball in overtime.

Wiley opened the OT with a three pointer to give the Sandies an early lead. Grapeland began to pull away from Krum but Marquis hit a three and was fouled. He converted the free throw to cut the lead to three but that was as close as the Bobcats would get as Grapeland pulled out the 59-55 win in overtime.

Marquis scored all eight of Krum’s points in the extra period as part of his game-high 31 points.

The Sandies meanwhile showed their grit as they hit six of seven from the line just when they needed it most. Wiley had seven in OT while both Frauenberger and Lamb went two for two at the line. Bryant made one of two from the charity stripe to close out the Grapeland scoring.

As previously mentioned, Carter Marquis led all scorers with 31 points. Other Krum scorers were: Brent Boone with 10; both Abe Dillon as well as Trey Smith had four apiece while Dallin Andrus, Tanner Dieleman and Cole Lee all had two.

The Sandies were paced by BJ Lamb with 24 points. Rick Frauenberger dropped in 16 and Tyrin Wiley netted 13. Deco Bryant chipped in four and Keizion Ashford had two.

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].