FORT WALTON BEACH — Josh Williams wishes he could say he practices his flashiest plays, but he doesn’t.
When he needs them, they just come to him. Late in the fourth quarter of Choctaw’s 66-54 win Friday against University Laboratory (LA) in the TeePee, the Indians point guard used a little of that magic to spark his team to victory in the semifinal round of the Northwest Florida Shootout basketball tournament.
Up six with 3:02 left, Choctaw forward Diante Smith corralled a turnover near the Cubs’ 3-point line and started to run. He saw Williams running ahead of him, and fired a pass in to Williams's left side.
With a University (9-6) defender bearing down on him, Williams accelerated, threw the ball behind his back with left hand and caught it with right as the defender blew past him without laying a hand on the ball.
Williams laid it in softly. The crowd went wild.
“Honestly, I didn’t know that was gonna happen,” Williams said. “It was just instinct. When (the defender) swept through, it just went behind my back.”
Friday’s game had been a battle to that point; three minutes before Williams’s behind-the-back lay up, University had battled back to take only its third lead of the game. Four free throws and an Aron Scott bucket at the rim later, Choctaw (10-1) was up 58-52, but it needed a big play to sway the game for good.
Williams and Choctaw coach Andy Thigpen agreed William’s play changed the momentum, allowing the team to advance to Saturday’s championship.
“That’s the kinda games we want right now,” Thigpen said. “We want to be challenged a little bit, as far as having to play through some adversity. The kids are starting to grow up a little bit.”
The Indians faced little adversity through the opening stretch of their season. They opened the year on a seven-game winning streak. Each of their first six wins came by at least 25 points, with three coming by at least 40 points.
That pace has since slowed. Choctaw’s only loss came Dec. 21 at the hands of Mountain View, the team playing for the Beach Blowout championship across town on the Northwest Florida State college campus. The Indians followed that with a three-point win against Lambert this past Friday and a 69-60 victory against East Coweta in the opening round of the tournament.
Thigpen said he’s pleased with how his team has responded to the adversity faced in its past three games.
“They’re starting to listen a little bit,” Thigpen said. “That’s always a good thing. You want to be playing your best basketball after Christmas break.”
Known for its unforgiving offense, Choctaw started Friday’s game surprisingly slow. After Smith cashed in from the elbow on the Indians’ opening possession, Choctaw went cold, missing five 3-pointers while University pulled ahead 8-2.
The Indians needed a spark. What they got was an inferno. With 4:35 left in the first quarter, Scott, a Fort Walton Beach transfer, got the ball just above the free-throw line with his back to the basket. He turned and fired, knocking down Choctaw’s second basket of the game to start a personal 6-0 run to even the score at 8-8.
“I was feeling it in warm-ups,” Scott said. “Feeling my stroke, so why not shoot it. That was it.”
The rest of the team took notice, and the shots started to fall. Choctaw used an 18-2 run in the first to pull ahead 25-13 by the end of the frame. Scott finished the quarter with 10 points.
The Indians return to action at 7 p.m. Saturday with a chance to claim the Shootout championship against Sumter Central. A win would give the Indians their third straight holiday tournament championship, a fact not lost on Williams.
“If we win, me and Diante, that’s gonna be our third time winning here,” Williams said. “It’s gonna be a three-peat, so we just gotta come out and listen to coach’s gameplan, execute it and we’ll get the dub.”
Lowndes 59, Navarre 46
The Northwest Florida Shootout has not been kind to the Raiders.
Navarre lost a one-possession game to Evangelical Christian on Thursday night at Choctaw High School, 36-34, then dropped another Thursday against Lowndes (GA). Matt Harshany led the team with 29 points, and Sage McKenna added eight more in what the Navarre Twitter account called a “great effort.”
The Raiders entered the tournament on a five-game win streak with victories against district opponents Niceville and Gulf Breeze. They drop to 7-5 on the season.
Navarre will play the loser of the Pleasure Ridge Park-East Coweta for a seventh-place tournament finish at 3 p.m. Saturday in the TeePee.
Go Southern Beach Blowout
Mountain View 57, Niceville 44,
Niceville’s Christmas miracle fell one game short.
The Eagles fell behind 25-6 to the Bears (GA) after one quarter at the Go Southern Beach Blowout tournament championship and never recovered. They were held to just two points in the third quarter.
Niceville entered the tournament with only one victory in 10 tries, the Eagles rolled through the competition to reach the championship game. Niceville won a nail-biter against Fort Walton Beach on Wednesday, 50-49, to advance to the semifinal game where the Eagles rolled over 52-44 victory against Pace on Thursday night.
“We’re starting to gel as a team,” Niceville coach Jerome Strutchen told the Daily News on Thursday. “Defensively we’re getting better, and that’s the key cause offensively, we’ll figure out how to score.”
The Eagles return to regular-season play with a conference game against the Dolphins at 7 p.m. Thursday in Gulf Breeze.
Crestview 57, Fort Walton Beach 45
Playing for the consolation championship at the Go Southern Beach Blowout in Niceville, Crestview blew the Vikings away in the fourth quarter to claim a fifth-place finish at the tournament.
After a relatively even first three quarters, the Bulldogs entered the final period up six points. They outscored Fort Walton Beach 21-15 in the final frame. It was both teams’ best quarter in terms of scoring output.
The Vikings beat Liberty 56-51 Thursday night to advance to the consolation championship, while Crestview topped Calloway County 65-48.
The Vikings get a few days off before resuming regular-season play with a trip to Pace to play the Patriots at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Crestview returns to action with a trip to Milton to play the Panthers at 5 p.m. Thursday.
Other Roundup:
South Walton 66, Chipley 57
The Seahawks snapped a six-game losing streak Thursday night, besting Chipley in the Bozeman High School gym.
Senior Hayden Stroop led South Walton with 15 points. Cade Rowland and Barrow Holloway each added 10.
For a squad that finished with a 10-14 record a season ago, the victory could be a step in the right direction and out of the 2-8 hole it currently finds itself in. The Seahawks finish their tournament against Bozeman before returning to regular- season play against Pensacola Catholic on Friday at 7 p.m. in South Walton.