FWB girls' rally fall short; boys lose too
FORT WALTON BEACH – The Fort Walton Beach girls’ basketball got off to a sluggish start Friday against Moore County (Tenn.) at the GoSouthern.com Classic and fell 50-43 in the tournament’s third-place game.
The youth-ridden Vikings came out of the gate slow, scoring just three points in the first quarter. They fell behind 23-10 at half, but continued to fight the entire second half.
The Vikings, led by Katie O’Neal’s 11 points, outplayed the talented Raiderette squad in the second half, but couldn’t finish it off.
Despite the loss, Fort Walton Beach coach Holly McDaniel was pleased with her team’s effort.
“Believe it or not, I was very pleased with them even though we lost,” McDaniel said. “I was pleased with how hard we played in the second half. We actually had a slight chance to win it in the end.”
The Vikings (5-9) cut the Moore County lead to six with 6:30 remaining in the game and made one more late run with under a minute left, getting with in five after O’Neal hit a pair of free throws following an Emily Troell (nine points) steal.
“We just know that we need to work as a team,” said O’Neal, who scored 10 of her 11 points in the final quarter. “And even if you get down, you can always come back up because it takes a lot of effort, but if you just do it as a team it could work.”
Boys: Evangelical Christian 52, Fort Walton Beach 34
Fort Walton Beach continued to struggle Friday at the GoSouthern.com Classic, falling 52-34 to Evangelical Christian School (Tenn.).
Israel Black led the Vikings’ (5-9) offense with 11 points and Devin Gould added nine.
Evangelical Christian was successful in taking away Fort Walton Beach’s primary offensive threat, Rece Coward.
“We were well scouted,” Lavin said, “and they were going to make the other guys step up and hit shots and we didn’t do a good job taking care of the ball.
“We did a decent job defensively, in first half especially.”
Southwind (Tenn.) defeated Dyer County (Tenn.) 61-55 in the final to take the tournament title.
Follow Pat Flynn on Twitter: @PatFnwfdn
