The South Pike Eagles took advantage of the visiting Crystal Springs Tigers’ inability to hold a lead and their tongues Friday night and came away with a 54-48 victory.
The win lifted the Eagles to 9-7 overall and 2-2 in Region 7-4A play.
Crystal Springs had taken the lead when Homer Lofton swiped a South Pike pass and lofted the ball to Roman Lofton, who dropped in a fingertip roll to put the Tigers in front 48-47. It was a major return for Roman Lofton after he left the game in the first quarter with a bleeding right arm.
The momentum quickly shifted back to South Pike when Devontee Cook followed a teammate’s miss with an offensive rebound and thunderous slam off the right baseline to put the Eagles back in front, 49-48 with 9.4 seconds to play.
After a Crystal Springs timeout, the Tigers turned the ball over when post player Gavin Allen was called for a double dribble.
On South Pike’s ensuing possession, Joshua Epps inbounded to Dquerius Bullock at mid-court. Bullock then broke away from the pack and appeared to be on his way to an easy layup until he was pulled down from behind by Kenderius Williams, who was whistled for the intentional foul.
Bullock sank both free throws to extend South Pike’s lead to 51-48 with 6.5 seconds to play.
Williams’ intentional foul also kept possession with South Pike. After fielding the inbounds pass, Bullock was once again fouled. As he made his way to the free-throw line, the head official called Allen for a technical foul after the post player continued to argue with officials.
Bullock then hit the front end of two technical-foul free throws, then added the two for being fouled for the game’s final points.
“I guess they got a little frustrated and that frustration built around their players,” South Pike head coach Joe Taylor said. “Several calls went against them, and they probably said some things allowed in Jackson that aren’t allowed here.”
It never appeared that the game would be decided at the foul line after South Pike closed the third period with five unanswered points to extend its lead to 37-31. Bullock capped the mini-run with a 3-pointer off an assist from point guard Deangelo Coleman.
Crystal Springs pulled to within 39-35. But South Pike answered with a 7-0 run, capped by power forward Brison Robinzine’s jumper from the top of the key to push the advantage to 46-35.
Once again, however, the Tigers crept back and sliced the margin to 46-42 on Jereekis Davis’ 3-pointer with 3:34 to play.
South Pike’s lead was cut to one when Allen dished to Christopher Lawrence on the left baseline. Lawrence knocked down the jumper to make it 47-46 with 1:12 remaining.
“This time,” Taylor said, “we got a little too relaxed. We didn’t put the game away like we should have.”
Taylor promised to make the Eagles’ practices “more intense” to prevent them from seeing more late leads slip away.
