South Pike head boys’ basketball coach Joe Taylor wanted his Eagles to open their Region 7-4A schedule Tuesday with a bang.
Instead it turned into what he described as a fizz.
Trelyn Pounds sank two free throws with 22 seconds left and Trevosity Ellzey hit the front end of two charity shots with 14.2 seconds to go as South Pike repelled a late Port Gibson rally to beat the visiting Blue Waves 51-46 at the Willie E. Jones Coliseum.
It was the region opener for both teams. The win improved South Pike to 13-3 on the season.
It was, however, a less than impressive showing in Taylor’s eyes.
“It was like when you open a soft drink,” he said. “It was a like a fizz, a puff — like a firecracker that wants to go boom but doesn’t.”
The Eagles struggled in nearly every aspect of the game, especially on offense, where they had fared so well this season. Taylor blamed his team’s struggles on the layoff following last week’s South Pike Holiday Hoops Tournament in which the Eagles beat Loyd Star last Monday, but fell to McComb two days later.
“We didn’t play like the team we should have played like,” Taylor said. “It was as if we had just started the season.”
The Eagles shot just 33 percent (16-of-48) from the floor and turned the ball over 18 times. The one bright spot came in the third period, when South Pike was 7-of-13 from the field, including Pounds’ buzzer-beating three-pointer that put the Eagles ahead 37-35.
Ellzey opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer from the left corner to stretch the lead to 40-35. Ellzey led the Eagles with 19 points.
Two free throws by Pounds gave the Eagles a 42-35 advantage with 7:04 to play. Pounds chipped in 15 points for South Pike.
Defensively, however, South Pike struggled with holding on to the lead. The Blue Waves got a three-pointer and running layup to cut the deficit to 46-42, then got to within two when a Port Gibson guard got around South Pike center Devontee Cook for a dunk to make it 46-44.
From there, however, Port Gibson missed its next five shots until a driving layup in the closing seconds provided the Blue Waves with their final points.
“I’m happy with the win,” Taylor said. “We’ve just got to execute better.”
The one area in which South Pike did shine was from the free-throw line, where the Eagles sank 17-of-21 charity shots.
Cook gave the Eagles a 10-9 lead when he hit a 15-foot jumper. He finished with eight points.
The lead built to 19-14 late in the second period when Ellzey, fouled on a three-point attempt, sank all three free throws with 1:16 left before halftime. South Pike led the low-scoring affair 19-16 at halftime.
Port Gibson reclaimed the lead in the third quarter when Keith Barnes, Taylor’s great-nephew, hit a running layup to make it 31-29.
The Eagles quickly took back the lead, however, when Dequarius Bullock drove off the right wing for the layup while drawing the foul. Bullock added the free throw to push South Pike back in front 32-31 with 1:56 left in the third period.
The Eagles will be on the road Friday night when they visit Columbia.
