Turbeville – The Johnsonville High School boys basketball team had the opportunity to put a measure of distance between itself and the rest of Region 5-Class A on Tuesday in its road game against East Clarendon. On Senior Night for the homestanding Wolverines though, they were having nothing to do with that.
EC led 10-1 after the first quarter and 27-9 at halftime before holding on down the stretch for a 44-36 victory.
The Golden Flashes had a 3-game winning streak snapped after losing their first 13 games of the season. JHS was first in the region with a 3-1 record coming into the game. The loss put it into a tie for second place with Scott’s Branch at 3-2, behind 3-1 Carvers Bay.
East Clarendon, which improved to 2-2, had a chance to force a 4-way tie for first on Wednesday in a road game against Carvers Bay.
“We needed this win,” said Wolverines head coach Patrick Kelly, whose team is 4-15 overall. "They snuck us at their place (55-50 for Johnsonville’s first victory). You can't get games back, you wish you could.
“This takes a l little bit of pressure off of us (in regards to earning a state playoff berth) Now we have a chance to finish third or second and maybe first depending on how everything shakes out. It's a pretty open race for right now.”
The packed house with an obviously overwhelming majority of EC fans was raucous from tipoff and it energized the Wolverines. The fact Johnsonville won the first meeting and the schools are longtime rivals may have had something to do with it as well.
“Johnsonville and Easts Clarendon is a rivalry,” Kelly said. “At their place. Their students were waving bye to our players. They wanted to put it to them tonight.”
The Wolverines shut out the Flashes until the final 14 seconds of the first quarter when Taysawn Brown hit a free throw to make it 10-1. James Gamble, an eighth-grader, hit two 3-point shots for six of EC’s points.
Gamble added another 3 in the second quarter as he scored five points while Anton Bennett and Ryan Sullivan both had four as East Clarendon opened the 18-point lead at halftime.
"We came out flat, and we got shocked by the crowd a little bit,” said JHS head coach Casey Geter. “We were a little starstruck. We're a young team in a hostile environment, so it kind of shook us a little bit.
“It took us a half to get it together.”
Johnsonville made a quick run at start of the second half, cutting the lead to 29-18 in the first 2 ½ minutes of the third quarter. However, East Clarendon fended the Flashes off, taking a 35-20 lead into the fourth quarter after a layup by Sullivan, one of three Wolverine seniors.
JHS made its run at EC in the fourth quarter.
“Those guys made me coach way too hard,” Kelly said. “I had to call way too many timeouts in the second half. After playing so great in the first half, we played the total opposite in the second half.”
Johnsonville climbed within five at 40-35 on a layup by Khalil Lewis with 1:27 left in the game. The Flashes could only manage one point the rest of the way though as East Clarendon claimed the win.
“We came out the second half and we were the regular team we'd been all season,” Geter said. “When you don’t get in the flow early, it’s tough.”
Gamble was the only double-figure scorer for the Wolverines, finishing with 17. Sullivan and Jaylon Barron both had six while Bennett finished with five. Rod Shaw, one of the other seniors along with Kayden Benjamin, had four, as did Jordyn Thames.
Sullivan and Bennett had big rebounding games, especially on the offensive glass.
“They’re both averaging over eight rebounds a game,” Kelly said. “They really get after it.”
Brown had 15 to lead Johnsonville, while Lewis had 13. Freshman Damarion Hampton had five.
Even though the regular season is starting to wind down, Geter said the Flashes are just starting to come together.
“The state game threw us off,” Geter said of Johnsonville playing for the Class A football state championship for the second season in a row in early December. We had injuries, a lot of older guys weren’t there because of football That was the first half of the season. We started getting in shape, we started getting better and better. We really started getting it when we hit region.
“We lost eight seniors last year (from a 13-8 team). I'm playing three freshmen. When you're playing that many, you're going to have those bumps in a road. We didn't expect to lose 13 straight, but we've won three when it matters. When you get to region, you've got to handle business.”
JHS -- 1 8 11 16 -- 36
EC -- 10 17 8 0 -- 44
EAST CLARENDON
Shaw 4, Gamble 17, Thames 4, Nesbitt 2, Sullivan 6, Bennett 5, Barron 6.
JOHNSONVILLE
Lewis 13, Brown 15, Hampton 5, Montgomery 2, Martin 1.
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