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02/10 - 9:07 PM Boys Basketball Final Daphne 61 Spanish Fort 58
Eastern Shore rivals Daphne have met eight times on the basketball court in the past two seasons.
It never gets old.
Kendrick Buskey converted a three-point play with seven seconds left as the Trojans knocked off the ninth-ranked Toros 61-58 in the Class 6A, Area 2 championship game at Spanish Fort.
The win snapped Spanish Fort’s 14-game win streak.
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“Anytime you can win here is huge,” Daphne coach Cedric Yelding said. “They have a great program and a great coach. This was a big one for us. It also means we get to play at home on Tuesday.”
The Trojans (19-9) host Carver-Montgomery. The winners of those games advance to the South Regional in Dothan later in the week.
The game was tight throughout as most are between these two schools. Neither team led by more than six points in the game. In the second half, the biggest lead was four – 42-38 in Daphne’s favor midway through the third quarter.
Davis Le hit two free throws for Spanish Fort with 1:02 left in the game to tie it at 58-58. The Trojans then played for the final shot, wasting all but seven seconds off the clock. Buskey, who missed three weeks with a dislocated knee suffered the last time these teams played at Spanish Fort, drove through the middle of the lane, hit a layup and was fouled.
“I haven’t been able to cut real well since the injury,” he said. “We’ve been trying to play it safe for the most part. But this was one time, I didn’t want to play it safe. I just got in the lane and finished.”
Buskey, who sported a huge ice pack on his right knee after the game, estimated he was playing at about 65 percent. That was good enough. He finished with 13 points. Yelding said his point guard improvised a bit on the final play.
“We were looking for a give-and-go along the baseline, but Spanish Fort did a good job defending it,” Yelding said. “Sometimes in basketball, your instincts have to take over, and I think what is what happened with Kendrick there.”
Spanish Fort coach Dru Powell said he was hoping for a foul on the floor before Daphne could get a shot off. His team had two fouls to give before the Trojans reached the 1-and-1.
“I think Kendrick just got to the basket quicker than we thought,” Powell said. “He got a shot up and got a foul on the shot. It was poor execution on our part, but you also have to tip your hat to him. Great players make big plays at big times.”
Spanish Fort’s Kris Abrams-Draine, who hit five 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 24 points, had a good look at a fifth 3 to send the game into overtime, but it wouldn’t go down.
-- Stars of the game: Buskey was the hero at the end, but Christian Williams kept Daphne close enough to pull it out in the fourth. Gambino hit four 3s, two of which came seconds after Abrams-Draine 3s, and finished with 16 points. Williams finished with 17, 13 of which came in the first half.
-- By The Numbers: 8 – games between Daphne and Spanish Fort in the past two seasons. Each team has won four. The Toros have a 2-1 edge this season, winning the first two games 69-65 and 66-61.
-- Key statistics: 10 – points for Spanish Fort big man Jackson Burkhalter. … 7 – 3-pointers made by each team. … 11 – ties in the game. …. 7 – lead changes in the fourth quarter.
-- Quotable: "We play each other a lot, but we're still learning. We tried to change some things up tonight to limit their guard play some. It slowed them down a little, but didn't seem to effect Draine." -- Yelding.
--They said it: "Two evenly matched teams. A game that went down to the last possession. They made a play and we didn't. It's as simple as that. Their best players had good games. Some of ours did not." – Powell.
“We played good enough to win tonight. We lost nine seniors last year and have a lot of new guys. It has taken a little while to figure things out. We just finished a great three days of practice, and I’m proud of the guys.” – Yelding.
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