Sophomore guard Jalen Speer got the ball quite a bit at home Tuesday night and delivered, scoring 27 points and hitting on 5 of seven 7 throws down the stretch in a 57-52 win over Buchholz.

When a teammate gets a hot hand, P.K. Yonge players know what to do — feed him the basketball.

Sophomore guard Jalen Speer got the ball quite a bit at home Tuesday night and delivered, scoring 27 points and hitting on 5 of seven 7 throws down the stretch in a 57-52 win over Buchholz.

Speer hit on five 3-pointers and scored all eight of the Blue Wave’s points in the second quarter as they held a 27-24 lead.

“We battled tonight, start to finish,” said P.K. Yonge coach Billy Blackmon. “Our guys were focused.

“They knew it has been an up-and-down season. They were locked in to finish tonight.”

The Blue Wave (10-9) used an 8-0 run in the first quarter to retake the lead, 19-15, heading into the second.

A 3-pointer by Jacob McCann put the Bobcats back in front, but a pair of 3-pointers by Speer kept the Blue Wave lead at three at the half.

Down four (35-31) late in the third, P.K. Yonge closed on a 9-0 spurt in the third to open a five-point advantage (40-35) heading into the fourth.

Although they came close many times in the final period, the Bobcats could never grab the lead from the Blue Wave. A 3-pointer by Trent Whittemore, who led Buchholz with a team-high 22 points, pulled the Bobcats to within two (54-52) with nine seconds to play.

But back-to-back fouls against Buchholz put P.K. Yonge on the foul line to clinch it.

The Bobcats took only three foul shots in the game compared to 17 for the Blue Wave.

“I think it is very obvious, we come in here and try to attack the whole game and we shoot four free throws for a team,” said Buchholz coach Bob Horodyski. “And there were two fouls called with less than 10 seconds to go in the game.

“They just mauled us and it was allowed. At the end of the day we fought through it. We weren’t physical enough. For us, Trent averages 12-15 free throws a game. I think they had six fouls total with a minute to go in the game.”

Brooks Walton had 15 points for the Bobcats, who host District 4-8A Bartram Trail on Thursday. William Banks had 10 for the Blue Wave.

P.K. Yonge, which has won three straight, plays at Eastside on Saturday, with a “city” title on the line.

“I know GHS beat us, but we split with them, so if we win Saturday we have a stake for the city title,” Blackmon said. “We talked about growing our brand of basketball, and one way of doing it is being the best team in the city.

“Our guys will be up and ready to play that game on Saturday.”

Contact Larry Savage at 352-374-5050 or larry.savage@gvillesun.com. And follow at Twitter.com/sunpreps