Sandies Claim Second Tourney Title in a Week

Grapeland Defeats Troup, 69-44

By Will Johnson

Messenger Reporter

FRANKSTON – To say the Grapeland Sandies have opened the 2019-2020 basketball season with a bang would be an understatement.

So far, the Sandies are 11-0 on the season. With only three days of practice, they won the 2019 Franklin Invitational Tournament over the Crockett Bulldogs, 50-42. Seven days later, they picked up the Frankston Tournament Championship with a 69-44 drubbing of the Troup Tigers.  They are also ranked #2 in the latest TABC poll.

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Grapeland opened the Frankston Tournament on Thursday with a win over the Troup Tigers, 63-51, then followed up with a win over the host Frankston Indians later that day by a score of 61-44.

Pool play continued on Friday morning as the Sandies defeated the Cross Roads Bobcats by 45 points, 76-31. The next game for the Sandies was against the Neches Tigers and Grapeland pushed their unbeaten streak to 10 as they defeated the Tigers, 79-68.

The win over Neches moved the Sandies into the championship game for a rematch against Troup who had battled their way back to make it to the tourney final.

As it turned out, the Sandies were more than ready for the rematch while the Tigers looked tired. That showed up in the first quarter as Grapeland took a 16-7 lead and never looked back.

BJ Lamb dropped in a pair of three-pointers for Grapeland while Deco Bryant also hit a three. Keizion Ashford had an old-fashioned three-point play as Austin Driskell and Cadarian Wiley chipped in two apiece to make the score 16-7 after the first eight minutes of play.

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Troup’s first quarter points came from Kedrick Frazier with three while both Bracey Cover and Blake Wood had two each.

The second quarter was more of the same as Grapeland opened up a 20-point lead before settling for a 33-14 lead at the break. Wiley hit a pair from behind the arc while Lamb added four. Cooper Ward drained a shot from downtown as Driskell and Riley Murchison chipped in two apiece.

The Tigers had three players score two in the second – Frazier, Wood and Grayson Driggs – while Cover made one of three from the line.   

After the intermission, the Sandies continued to play an up-tempo game and it seemed as if the Tigers just didn’t have the manpower to keep up with the Sandies. Lamb dropped in a pair of threes as part of his eight points in the quarter. Bryant also knocked down two three-pointers, while Wiley had three and Driskell made one of two from the line.

Driggs paced the Tigers with seven in the third, Cover nailed a three as both Wood and Blake Castillo had two.

Try as they might, Troup never could muster up the firepower for a comeback in the final frame. Driggs added another seven to his total while Frazier, Wood and Womack all had three apiece.

Driskell and Wiley paced the Sandies in the final eight minutes of play with four apiece. Michael Dancer and Lekerian Smith both hit from behind the arc while Murchison along with Dameion Smith dropped in two apiece to help give Grapeland the 69-44 win.

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On the game, the Tigers were led by Grayson Driggs with 16 points. Blake Wood dropped in nine and Kedrick Frazier went for eight. Bracey Cover added six while Logan Womack had three and Matthew Castillo chipped in two.

The Sandies were led by BJ Lamb with a game-high 18 points while Cadarian Wiley went for 15. Deco Bryant and Austin Driskell both threw in nine apiece, while Riley Murchison tossed in four. Keizion Ashford, Michael Dancer, Lekerian Smith and Cooper Ward all had three while Dameion Smith added a basket to round out the Grapeland point production.

Lamb was named as MVP of the tournament and Wiley was selected to the All-Tournament team.   

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