Hornets Sting Sandies, 63-59
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
GRAPELAND – The Grapeland Sandies returned to action after the Thanksgiving break on Tuesday, Nov. 30 as they hosted the Athens Hornets. The Sandies came into the contest with a 3-0 record while the Class 4A Hornets were 0-4.
The Sandies led for the majority of the game and looked like they would pick up win number four. A shooting slump in the fourth quarter, however, allowed the Hornets to hang around and hand Grapeland its first loss of the season by a score of 59-63.
Prior to the varsity game, the Junior Varsity Sandies took on the JV Hornets. The contest was close until the early fourth quarter when Grapeland opened up a 10-point lead, before going on to win by a final score of 41-24.
Once the JV contest concluded, the varsity boys took the court. The first few minutes of the contest were fast paced as Athens pulled ahead 13-12 with just under four minutes left in the quarter.
The Grapeland defense responded in a hurry as they shut down the Hornets for the remainder of the quarter. That gave the Sandies’ offense the opportunity to retake the lead and when Johnny Lamb hit a three, the Sandies ended the initial eight minutes up by five, 18-13.
As the second quarter began, the continued pressure from the Grapeland defense forced the Hornets into committing back-to-back turnovers, which allowed the Sandies to take an 11-point by the 6:40 mark of the period.
The Hornets began to chip away at the point deficit after falling behind by double digits. Athens trimmed the lead to five with 3:37 and got it down to one with 1:30 left in the half. A late basket from Grapeland, however, pushed the Sandies’ lead out to 34-31 as the two teams went to their respective locker rooms at the half.
Following the break, Athens ran off the first six points of the third quarter to retake the lead. The Sandies battled back to go ahead 42-41 after a big blocked shot from Cadarian Wiley. The Hornets came back to tie the game at 44, but Grapeland’s Riley Murchison canned a pair of free throws to give Grapeland a slim two-point advantage as the two teams headed into the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter began with Murchison poking away a rebound from an Athens’ player, corralling the ball and laying it in for an easy two. A three-pointer from the Hornets, however, cut the score to 48-47 with just over six minutes remaining in the contest.
Things started getting chippy as the two teams swapped baskets the remainder of the way. Athens would pull ahead and the Sandies would tie it back up. Wiley made a put back with 1:05 remaining to tie the game 57.
After the Hornets scored, Murchison hit a pair of clutch free throws with less than 45 seconds left to knot the game at 59. That was as close as the Sandies would get, however, as the Hornets scored the next four points to hand Grapeland a 63-59 loss.
The Hornets were led in scoring by Eli Rincon who had a game-high 24 points. He was joined in double figures by Jorien Ray with 20 and Jaden Crane with 10. Xiaver Hemphill had four while Gage Friedrich and Jermarius Moore both had two. Jaxson Stiles closed out the Athens’ point production with one.
The Sandies were paced by Riley Murchison with a team-high 18 points. He also had six rebounds, two assists and two steals. Omarian Wiley pumped in 12, pulled down eight boards, dished out three assists and had three steals. Both Johnny Lamb and Cadarian Wiley netted 11 apiece. Lamb also had two rebounds and four steals. Wiley also had five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Rounding out the Grapeland scoring, Cole Goolsby went for five points while Kionte Willis chipped in two.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
