Tiger Sharks Ride Wild Week

The week was a roller coaster for the Port St. Joe High School boy’s basketball team.

The team traveled to Bay High last Tuesday and turned a 3-point second-half barrage into a victory, came home and watched a 19-point lead disappear in the second half of a loss to Tallahassee Lincoln and bounced back to rout district foe Blountstown to complete the week.

Against Bay, the Tiger Sharks (now 2-2) held a 36-34 lead at intermission before hitting five 3-pointers as they out-scored the Tornadoes 24-0 over the first six minutes of the second half en route to a 78-53 victory.

“They’re all back,” Sharks coach Derek Kurnitsky said as he threw up his arms when asked if his squad is capable of similar outbursts this season. The Tiger Sharks played with a full squad for the first time this season.

“The kids put in their time this summer, and as a unit I think we can consistently do that. Because let me tell you something, Bay High has a good ballclub.”

In those first crucial minutes of the third quarter, the Tornadoes left open Raheem Clemons, who already had 15 of his game-high 26 points in the first half, and he canned three treys. Calvin Pryor swished two and Willie Quinn one as the Sharks were six of 10 behind the arc in the third quarter.

Pryor finished with 14 points and Quinn had 10. Darrell Smith had eight points, Rock Quinn four and Roman Quinn nine.

The Tiger Sharks dominated the opening half against Tallahassee Lincoln, building a 19-point lead early in the third quarter before it all unraveled.

Lincoln stormed back to tie the game in regulation and finished off a 73-71 victory in overtime.

“We didn’t do a good enough job of holding the lead,” Kurnitsky said. “We didn’t hit our free throws. We seemed to lose focus. We make a mistake and we let that get to us when we should be thinking about what’s next.

“We are still learning how to play and how to play with pressure. That’s why we schedule a team like Lincoln in December, to give us that experience.”

Clemons, whose 21 points a game leads the Big Bend area, had 19 points to lead the Tiger Sharks. Willie Quinn had 16 points, Roman Quinn 15, Calvin Pryor 12, Quincy Welch four and Smith five.

Port St. Joe rebounded in a big way on Saturday night as they played the final three quarters at almost warp speed in overwhelming district opponent Blountstown 72-36.

The Tiger Sharks were up 16 at the half after a close opening period and won going away.

“We won by 36 points and we still haven’t played our ‘A’ game, which is scary,” Kurnitsky said. “I thought we really bounced back well from the Lincoln game. They showed a lot of maturity. At this point in the season we can’t dwell on our mistakes, we have to just think about what is in front of us.”

Clemons had 25 points and Pryor 16 to lead the Tiger Sharks. Smith was also in double figures with 10 points, Roman Quinn had seven, Willie Quinn six, Trubias Hill four, Welch two and Thomas Sims two.

The Tiger Sharks hosted Liberty County on Tuesday, travel to Tallahassee Leon on Friday and play Bainbridge(GA) High at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday in the Northwest Florida High School Classic at Chipola Junior College.

* Port St. Joe’s junior varsity lost to Bay 56-45.  Port St. Joe was led by Trevor Lang with 20 points and Alex King who added 16 points.  The next game will be Friday, Dec. 18 at Leon.

Pat McCann of Florida Freedom Newspapers contributed to this article