White Plains survives
- Updated: January 19, 2021
Wildcats don’t pull a Lakers, hold off Saks after losing focus at start of the second half
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE – White Plains basketball coach Chris Randall watches a lot of basketball on television for both education and enjoyment.
On Monday night he had the Warriors-Lakers game on the tube and was astonished at the way the Warriors came back from a 19-point first-quarter deficit (11 in the fourth) to eventually win by two.
On Tuesday, Randall brought his Wildcats to Jacksonville State for its Calhoun County Tournament opener and for a time thought he was transported back in time and into the television show he was watching the night before.
His Wildcats lost their focus in the third quarter and saw Saks cut a 23-point lead to six with as much as 5:21 to play. But then his Wildcats got it back together before they reached the point of no return and finished off a 60-48 win.
“Did y’all see the Lakers and the Warriors last night?” Randall asked. “The Lakers are up 19 and lose at home. They got on a roll, everything they looked at went in. We lost our focus and in a tournament game you lose your focus and it’ll cost you.
“Yeah I was thinking about (that Lakers game), absolutely. I was about to throw up. I just faked it, just tried to pretend I wasn’t sick. Yeah, that was definitely on my mind.
“But what I’m going to talk to the guys about is how we responded. We didn’t get shook, stayed cool. I liked the way we responded. Ten years ago, we’d have probably lost that game because I would’ve done something stupid. I didn’t get that mad, either. I tried to stay calm and realize we got a bunch of guys out on the floor who know how to win.”
Guard Quin Wilson wasn’t worried at all.
“We’re a team of seniors, so I felt we were going to close it out the whole way,” he said.
The way the second half was going, though, it looked as if White Plains was going to fall victim to another fiery halftime speech Saks coach Jonathan Miller delivered to his team.
Miller got intense at halftime of his team’s tournament opener against Donoho and whatever he said – or the way he said it – motivated them to rally from a three-point halftime deficit to win.
On this day, Saks came down from the halftime locker room located up in the coliseum rafters, competed harder on defense, started attacking the basket and made foul shots and shots in general. It held White Plains to eight points in the third quarter to draw within 12 by the end of the quarter and had it within six with 5:21 to go and against with 3:21 left.
“We knew we didn’t play very well; I didn’t think we competed very hard defensively in the first half,” Miller said. “We do have the type of team that when you challenge them usually they’re going to respond. I thought they got out there and competed a little on the defensive end. But they’ve also got to understand we got to bring that for four quarters and we can be a pretty good team.”
Randall said he might consider drafting Miller to talk to his team at halftime if things continue on their current course.
But once Saks got close, its shots, especially layups, stopped falling and White Plains pulled away with two free throws by Jaden Chatman and buckets by Brody Baker and Wilson.
Baker had 19 points and Wilson had 17.
White Plains 60, Saks 48
SAKS – Jordan Cosper 3 2-2 8, Patrick Williams 2 3-5 7, Will Mixson 1 0-0 2, Shon Elston 0 0-1 0, Sean Parnell 5 8-11 19, Jalen McCants 1 1-4 3, Conor Martin 3 0-0 7, C.J. Grisham 1 0-0 2. Totals 16 14-22 48.
WHITE PLAINS – Quin Wilson 5 6-6 17, Jaden Chatman 2 2-2 6, Jacob Wheeler 3 0-0 7, Landon Senciboy 0 0-0 0, Brody Baker 8 2-2 19, Walker Osteen 4 0-0 8, Kahlil Williams 0 1-2 1, Garrett Wilson 1 0-1 2. Totals 23 11-13 60.
Saks 10 9 17 12 – 48
White Plains 22 18 8 12 – 60
3-point goals: Saks 2 (Parnell, Martin); White Plains 3 (Q. Wilson, Wheeler, Baker). Fouled out: Gresham. Total fouls: Saks 16, White Plains 17. Officials: Williams, Brown, Hodge.
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