Sandies Slam into State Semis

Grapeland Rides Second Quarter Surge to 75-57 Win

By Will Johnson

Messenger Reporter

FAIRFIELD – On Friday night, the Grapeland Sandies traveled to Fairfield to take on the LaPoynor Flyers for a chance to move on to the State Semifinals.

The Sandies are no stranger to the Regional Finals. Since 2011, Grapeland has played in the Region III Finals for the right to advance to the State Tournament seven of the last 11 years. In 2014 and 2017, the Sandies won the Regional Finals and advanced to the State Semifinals.

Grapeland is also no stranger to LaPoynor during the postseason. Three times since 2011, the Sandies have met up with the Flyers in the playoffs. In 2014, the two teams met in the Regional Finals while in both 2016 and 2017, they met up in the Regional Quarterfinals. All three matchups went to Grapeland.

This year, however, the Sandies and Flyers squared off in a non-district game during mid-December. That particularly game went LaPoynor’s way as they took down the Sandies on Grapeland’s homecourt by a final score of 61-56. The loss also marked the only blemish on the Sandies’ 27-1 so far record this year.

Grapeland came into the Regional Finals ranked #3 in Class 2A while the Flyers were ranked #4 and had a 26-5 record. With the Sandies seeking a little payback for the early-season loss and LaPoynor looking for some revenge for previous playoff defeats during years gone by, the game had the potential to be a barn burner.

The first quarter started out slow as the two teams tried to get a feel for one another. The second quarter, however, saw three-pointers falling from the sky as the Sandies knocked down a combined seven shots from behind the arc to take a 19-point lead at halftime.

The Flyers cut the lead down to nine mid-way through the fourth quarter, but that was as close as they would get as Grapeland held off LaPoynor – by a final score of 75-57 – to advance to the State Semifinals.

As the game got underway, both teams seemed to be assessing any changes the other made since they met in December. The pace of the game was slow with the Flyers holding a 5-4 lead at the midpoint of the first quarter.

The Sandies tied the game at 10 on a Cadarian Wiley layup with 1:42 left in the period, but could not convert a last-second shot and trailed 12-10 after the first eight minutes of play.

DiJuan Whitehead led the Flyers with four, first quarter points. Both Kamron Etheridge and Kase Johnston hit from downtown while Cooper Gracey dropped in a bucket to round out the scoring.

Wiley paced the Sandies with six points in the early going while BJ Lamb and Riley Murchison chipped in two apiece to help keep Grapeland within striking distance.

Once the second quarter began, Grapeland unleashed a furious scoring attack as they rocked LaPoynor’s world with a barrage of 3’s to take a lead they would not relinquish.

The Sandies tied the game at 14 at the 6:24 mark of the quarter and following a two from the Flyers, Lamb untied it with his first three-pointer. Then, Murchison found his outside touch and drained a long-ball. Lamb followed up with another shot from behind the arc and Murchison followed suit by canning his second three-pointer in the period.

Lamb finished the second quarter with four three-pointers as part of his 16 points. Murchison connected on a pair of threes for six while Keizion Ashford added five. Omarian Wiley added two and Johnny Lamb got in on the long-range shooting as he drilled a three at the buzzer to help Grapeland take a 42-23 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The LaPoynor second quarter scoring came from Johnston with four while Eldridge hit his second three of the game. Gracey and Evan Almeda both had two apiece to close out the Flyers’ first half scoring.

The Flyers appeared out of sorts by the end of the first half, but after the break, it appeared as if LaPoynor had been rejuvenated. The Flyers cut the lead to 42-30 with 5:44 left in third and had the lead down to 10 at the four-minute mark.

A big three-pointer from Ashford, however, was followed by a rim-rocking slam from C. Wiley which put the Sandies up by 15, once again. B. Lamb closed out the quarter with a driving lay-up as time expired in the third with Grapeland up by a margin of 57-40.

Ashford dropped in five points in the third while Lamb, Murchison, C. Wiley, O. Wiley and Michael Dancer all had two apiece to account for the Grapeland scoring.

Gracey connected on a pair of three-pointers, along with a two, for LaPoynor in the third. Garrett Nuckolls found the scoring column with six, Johnston added a basket and Aiden Maze made one of two from the line to close out the Flyers’ third quarter output.

With eight minutes left before moving on or going home, LaPoynor tried to rally. The Flyers whittled away at the Sandies’ lead and trimmed it to single digits with 5:18 remaining. C. Wiley responded to push the lead back to double-digits and forced the Flyers to call a timeout.

The TO didn’t work, however, as Grapeland pulled ahead by 15 with three minutes left in the contest and then by 17 at the two-minute mark. LaPoynor simply could not overcome the deficit as Grapeland pushed its lead to 20 before securing the 75-57 Regional Finals win.

On the game, LaPoynor was led in scoring by Garrett Nuckolls with 14 points and Cooper Gracey with 12. Kase Johnston was in double-figures with 11. Kamron Eldridge and DiJuan Whitehead both had six while both Evan Almeda and Aiden Maze dropped in four apiece to account for the Flyers’ point production.

The Sandies were led by BJ Lamb with a game-high 24 points. He also had four rebounds, four assists and one steal. Cadarian Wiley powered his way to 16 points to go along with five rebounds, two assists, two steals and one blocked shot.

Riley Murchison added 12 points to go along with a pair of rebounds and four assists. Keizion Ashford also hit the double-digit mark with 10 points, as well as five assists and seven steals.

Rounding out the Grapeland scoring, Omarian Wiley had six, Michael Dancer dropped in four and Johnny Lamb added three points.

Following the game, Coach Blake Doughty spoke about LaPoynor’s and his team’s performance.

“This is huge. These guys (LaPoynor) were the only loss we had this year. Those guys are so talented. I tell you what, they are also so young. They will be back. This is a very impressive group from LaPoynor and for us to go over the top of them, it means the world to us,” the coach said.

“I am so proud of these guys,” Doughty added. “Our guys were nervous and our guys don’t get nervous. For the seniors, every year since their eighth-grade year, a Grapeland Sandie team has made it to the Regional Finals and not made it over the hump. These guys wanted to leave their stamp and their legacy for the group that’s coming after them. I know it’s a huge sigh of relief to be where we are at now.”

When asked about the barrage of three-pointers in the second quarter, Doughty laughed and said, “You would like to say it’s all coaching, but good players make for smart coaches! I’m very lucky to be where I’m at, and we’ve got some guys that can really play the game of basketball.”

The Sandies were back in action on Tuesday night as they took on the Schulenburg Shorthorns in the State Semifinal game. As of press time, however, the final score was unavailable.

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