FWB boys, girls sweep Crestview (SLIDESHOW, VIDEO)
FORT WALTON BEACH – It was a clean sweep for the Fort Walton Beach basketball teams Tuesday night against District 2-6A foe Crestview.
The Lady Vikings opened the night with an impressive 58-24 win and the Vikings’ boys then took the nightcap, 59-48, for their first district win.
Fort Walton Beach boys’ coach John Lavin didn’t try to downplay the importance of getting the first district win.
“It was pretty big,” he said. “It was huge for our psyche. Getting that district win was tough.
“You have to battle every night and Crestview is a good team. It is big for our psyche to get the win in district play.”
The Vikings (8-10, 1-3) wasted no time in taking control of the game.
Rece Drake and Allen Wallace led a balanced Fort Walton Beach attack, as the Vikings jumped to a 16-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Drake had five points in the opening period and Wallace four points, but Devin Gould, Blake James and KeKe Richardson also scored in the period.
While all of the Vikings seemed to be finding their mark, things weren’t going so well for the Bulldogs.
Crestview (9-5, 2-3) got a 3-pointer from Roman Donofro and baskets from Denzel Ware and Ronnie Baylark, but that was it.
The Fort Walton Beach offense slowed a little in the second quarter, but Drake continued his hot shooting adding five more points on the way to a game-high 20 as the Vikings extended the lead to 27-13.
But the Bulldogs weren’t about to go away without a fight.
Crestview’s senior guard tandem of Justin Cline and Antryun Coleman were held to a combined two points in the first half, but that changed in the third quarter.
Coleman scored nine points and Cline added six as the Bulldogs came roaring back. A Coleman 3-pointer with 25 seconds left in the third quarter cut the Viking lead to 39-35.
But that’s as close as the Bulldogs got.
Richardson scored for the Vikings to open the fourth quarter and put Fort Walton Beach back up by six.
A Ware basket made it a four point game again, but when Richardson hit one of two free throws the Vikings were up by five and slowly pulled away for the win.
Late in the game the teams started fouling each other and while Fort Walton Beach only hit 8-of-16 free throws that turned out to be more than enough as the Bulldogs were 9-of-25 from the line and 3-of-8 in the fourth quarter.
A frustrated Bulldog coach Keith White offered one explanation for the way his team played.
“Our guys don’t want to be coached,” he said.”They want to do it on their own so I’m going to let them see how good they are.”
Drake was joined in double figures for the Vikings by Wallace, who had 13 points. Gould had eight and Richardson seven.
Coleman led Crestview in scoring with 13 points. Cline and Ware each had nine points.
Things weren’t so dramatic in the girls’ game.
Late in the first quarter the Lady Vikings led 9-6, but Fort Walton Beach closed with an 11-0 run and was up 20-6 at the end of the first.
Mercedes Claybrone added four more points to the run early the second quarter before the Bulldogs scored on a pair of free throws by Jensis Coleman.
Fort Walton Beach (12-7, 4-2) led 35-12 at the end of the first half and 49-19 after three.
A Carissa Reeves 3-pointer for the Lady Vikings extended the lead to 35 points with 5:12 in the final quarter and started the running clock.
“I thought they came out very, very focused and ready from the get go,” Fort Walton Beach coach Holly McDaniel said. “It’s nice when you start hitting shots and it makes everybody relax a little bit.
“I thought our inside-outside game worked real well together.”
Claybrone led the Vikings with 13 points. Cienna Morris added 11 and Emily Troell finished the night with 10 points.
Crestview (10-7, 1-5) was led in scoring by Jasmine Middleton’s four points. Four other Bulldogs scored three points each.
