Port St. Joe Wins Region; Headed to Lakeland

Defense carried the host Tiger Sharks past Pensacola Christian Academy and all the way to Lakeland on Saturday night.

Port St. Joe (26-4) held the Warriors’ leading scorer to a single bucket and forced 25 turnovers as the Tiger Sharks earned their third trip to the state Class 2A final four in the past six years with a 55-45 victory in the Region 1 championship game.

Port St. Joe will face Tampa Prep in Friday’s semifinals. The Class 2A championship game is scheduled for Saturday.

Defense, specifically the thieving hands of senior guard Raheem Clemons, fueled two critical second-half runs that helped Port St. Joe dig a hole from which PCA could simply not climb out.

“This feels great,” said Clemons of another trip to Lakeland. “We worked harder and we knew what we needed to do to get back there.”

The key run came early in the fourth quarter with Port St. Joe nursing a 38-35 lead that had been reduced from 11 points behind the inside play of PCA center Jon Andrews (game-high 19 points).

Clemons (14 points) willed in a tumbling toss from the baseline and followed that with a pair of steals as he scored six-straight points in just over a minute of clock time to build a 44-35 cushion with 2:30 remaining.

Forced to foul, and with Port St. Joe in the bonus, the Warriors (23-3) helplessly watched as the Tiger Sharks sank free throws while PCA could not execute the sort of long-range shooting needed for a comeback over the final two minutes.

A primary reason was the defense on forward Mike Goetsch, the Warriors’ leading scorer, who managed a single 3-pointer from the corner in the first quarter and was not heard from again.

“They guarded (Goetsch) all night long,” said PCA coach Jim Schneider. “They played well on defense all game.

“This team (Port St. Joe) is the fastest team we’ve played all year. But we knew that from two years ago when we played them in the region final. It is the same MO, but you hope on a given night you can overcome that. Tonight we couldn’t.”

Scoring their first basket from the floor with 7:30 already elapsed in the game the Tiger Sharks were forced to overcome an early deficit and did so behind the all-around play of junior Calvin Pryor.

Pryor filled up the stat sheet, scoring 14 points for the game while adding seven rebounds, two blocks, five assists and three steals, most of his damage coming in the first half.

His put back of a missed shot was the first Port St. Joe basket and he completed the half with a steal and drive for an easy lay-in that finished a 6-0 run allowing the Tiger Sharks to go into the locker room at halftime up 24-20 after Trubias Hill tallied his only points of the night on a 3-pointer from the corner.

Pryor took an elbow to the nose in the third period and was forced to the bench for what were several anxious minutes in the coaching tenure of Port St. Joe coach Derek Kurnitsky.

“I kept looking at him on the bench and my assistant was saying he was hurt and I was saying ‘We need to get him back in there,’” Kurnitsky said. “We wanted to keep attacking the basket. I told the kids at halftime we needed one more spurt to win this game.”

Roman Quinn (11) points assumed the role of leading the attack while Pryor sat and combined with Willie Quinn and the return of Pryor late in the quarter to lift the Tiger Sharks to a 38-27 third-quarter lead that was trimmed by two points from Andrews in the final seconds of the period.

Pensacola Christian scored the first six points of the final stanza to pull within three, but Clemons took control of the game over the ensuing two minutes and the Tiger Sharks were 9 of 12 from the free throw line the rest of the way to keep the Warriors at bay.

“Defense was the key,” Kurnitsky said. “We guarded them. We finally figured out how to guard people for 32 minutes. We are playing great defense right now and that is important this time of year.”

PCA – 7-13-9-14 _ 45

PSJ – 9-15-14-17 _ 55

PCA (45) – Hawkins 0 0-0 0, Harrison 0 0-0 0, Morales 2 0-0 4, Kuboda 2 0-0 4, Riche 2 2-2 6, Goetsch 1 0-0 3, Stampfler 3 0-0 7, T. Andrews 1 0-0 2, J. Andrews 6 7-8 19. Totals: 17 9-10 45.

PSJ (55) – Hill 1 0-0 3, Roman Quinn 3 5-8 11, Clemons 5 4-11 14, Smith 0 2-2 2, Rock Quinn 1 0-1 2, Littles 0 1-2 1, W. Quinn 4 0-2 8, Pryor 5 4-8 14. Totals: 19 16-34 55.