Koszuta lifts Eagles over Vikings (SLIDESHOW, VIDEO)

FORT WALTON BEACH – What Kyle Koszuta did with the basketball in his hands last night – on Friday the 13th – was impressive to even the average fan, but it may haunt the dreams of the Fort Walton Beach boys’ basketball team.

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Koszuta went off for a game-high 23 points and eight assists to guide Niceville to a 49-41 District 2-6A win over rival Fort Walton Beach.

The senior point guard was hot from the start, knocking down his first three 3-pointers of the night to put the Eagles (11-6, 4-0) out front 15-9 after a quarter of play.

“I’ve actually been working on that shot like all week,” Koszuta said of his pull-up jumper, “and I’m glad it actually fell because I put so much work into it.”

The Vikings (8-11, 1-4) played well defensively and did not deviate from their game plan on the offensive end, making a concerted effort to slow the game down.

“Fort Walton Beach came out and they had a game plan and they stuck to it,” Niceville coach Jerome Strutchen said. “They never ventured from it and Rece (Drake) is a good player.”

Drake finished with 20 points on the night to lead the Vikings, who took their first lead of the game with 3.9 seconds left in the first half at 20-19. But a shooting foul on Koszuta at half court gave the senior Louisiana-Monroe commit three free throws with less than a second on the clock. He hit 2-of-3 attempts and sent the Eagles to the locker room with a 21-20 lead.

Fort Walton Beach came out strong to start the second half and exchanged lead changes with the Eagles three times to start the third quarter. Keke Richardson was a factor, finishing with nine points for the Vikings, but the Eagles eventually began to extend their lead as Koszuta, McKinley Stephens (four points) and Shane Horton (eight points) got out and started running.

The Eagles extended their lead to 13 in the fourth quarter despite 12 points from Coward in the period. The Vikings couldn’t keep up with Niceville’s breakneck pace. Koszuta dished off 5 fourth-quarter assists breaking the Vikings’ press.

“We don’t really have too much trouble with the press,” Koszuta said. “We keep our composure with the press and that’s what you have to do to beat a press, ball fake, and you can’t really stop it when you do that and they didn’t stop it tonight.”

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