NEWBERN — Snow and ice replaced sand and surf for the second meeting venue between Bartlett and Dyer County.
The score changed to a degree also.
Meeting in a Christmas tournament in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., the Go Southern Beach Blowout, on Dec. 27, the Panthers defeated Dyer County 52-48.
Playing the Choctaws again in the quarterfinals of the Region 7-AAA tournament last Tuesday in Newbern, the Choctaws ended the Panthers’ season 82-70.
Wanting to rebound from a lackluster performance against the Panthers the first time, Dyer County junior Derrion Cliff scored a game-high 39 points.
“The first time we played them, Derrion didn’t play well. Today he wanted to be assertive. He told me before the game he wanted to a have a good game. I thought he played really well,” said Dyer County coach Derek McCord. “Every time we made a run, they made a run. Derrion would (then) hit the big shot. He really works hard. He has been focused all year long.”
Trailing by as many as 16 points–34-18 with 3:25 left in the second quarter, the most they would be behind all game, the Panthers chiseled the deficit to three points three times.
Late in the game, Exvaian Young sank two free throws with 2:47 left to pull the Panthers within 68-65. Dyer County’s D’Michael Smith then scored to give the Choctaws a five-point lead. The Panthers’ Eric McGill cut it to 70-67 with 2:08 left.
Then the Choctaws (25-4) went on a 12-3 run, sparked by David Ray, Ashton Mitchell, Deaundra Gilton and Cliff. Cliff’s dunk with 11 seconds left was an exclamation point plus an 11-point lead, 81-70.
“We couldn’t get stops at times (but) toward the end we started getting stops,” said McCord. “I thought late in the game when they were forced to really come up and pressure; that allowed us to get some run outs. That is what we do every day, a lot of pressure on each other and man-to-man.”
The pesky Panthers (17-13) overcame first-half shooting woes to pressure Dyer County, which entered the game with its ninth straight District 13-AAA regular-season championship.
Bartlett 6-6 senior Jonathan Bowlan, who was named first team All-District 14-AAA, scored a team-high 30 points.
“Jonathan is a beast!” said McCord. “We really had a tough time with Bowlan. He is a really-talented kid. He is one of those guys who is a dual threat because he can score inside and then he can step out and shoot it too. We knew that he was a tough player. Thirty points. He got to the foul line. He played really well. He and Exvaian Young are a tough match-up with their size. McGill does such a good job of creating shots. He is not just a good scorer, he created shots for a lot of people. We knew that he was an extremely talented player and they are tough. Dalton Underhill can shoot. They all shoot the ball so well, they are a tough matchup for us.”
Young finished with 16 points, McGill 12, Underhill, who entered the game as the team’s third leading scorer, 2. Young and McGill were named to the second team all-district.
Dyer won the first-half shooting battle. Cliff had 22 points by halftime and the Choctaws never trailed after Smith, who finished with 17 points, hit the first trey of the game for a 5-3 lead. Young’s trey got the Panthers within 13-11
before Bowlan, who scored 14 in the first half, tied it at 13. Dyer County scored nine straight points with Cliff scoring four and Gilton three.
Of Dyer’s 19 second-quarter points, Cliff scored 12 of them, including two straight three-pointers. Bartlett’s Quason Taylor and Bowlan combined to cut the deficit to 34-26 with 1:41 left in the second quarter. Dyer led 41-30 at halftime.
“I don’t think we played a full game, that’s it,” said Bartlett coach Anthony Smith afterwards. “They jumped out a little-bit aggressive in the beginning. We weren’t ready for it. We couldn’t stop them in transition. They were
getting easy buckets. In the first half we didn’t play our basketball. We would get the ball down low. We were just jacking shots, ill-advised shots, wrong shots at the wrong time, not crashing the boards. They got a lot of their shots, we weren’t. Most of their points in the first half were off second chances. We were sitting around looking at it, instead
of going to get it, hustle plays.”
The Panthers, which finished fourth in District 14-AAA and had a regular-season league record of 7-4, made a game of it in the second half. Dyer scored 41 points in the second half, Bartlett 40. Bartlett opened with eight straight points pulling to within 41-38 after three-pointers by McGill and Quienton Williams.
Bowlan’s basket with 4:27 left in the third quarter sliced it to 45-40. Cliff’s dunk with 2:59 left made it an eight-point game, 49-41, and his free throws after a technical foul expanded it to 51-43. Cliff then hit a three-pointer and Dyer County led 54-43.
Trailing by nine points at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Bowlan rebounded and then scored and again the Panthers closed, 58-54. But two straight three-pointers which the Choctaws used to distance themselves throughout the game were hit by Smith and Cliff.
Bartlett rallied. Young scored three straight and then blocked a shot that led to a bucket by Bowlan and it was 64-59. Young’s free throws narrowed it to 66-61 with 4:40 left. Bowlan made it a five-point game with 58.7 seconds left, 74-69. Two free throws by Gilton, who finished with eight points, and a basket by David Ray, who scored 14 in the game, expanded the lead to 78-69.
“David Ray did a heck of a job getting to the rim,” said McCord of Ray’s play the entire game.
With a 20-point scoring average and more than 10 rebounding, Bowlan scored the last point of his high school career on a free throw with 30 seconds left.
Bowlan, who was named MVP in offense in the district in football during the 2014 season after guiding the Panthers to the playoffs and has signed a scholarship to play baseball at the University of Memphis, was teary-eyed after the game.
“We just couldn’t play defense. Defense is what killed us. We couldn’t stop them. They kept getting transition on us and we weren’t getting back. We would close but couldn’t get momentum,” said Bowlan.
“Thirty points? It doesn’t mean anything. Our season is over. I was just playing ball and helping the team out as much as I can. Leaving this team is the hardest. It was fun. I enjoyed them. It felt like a family, all brothers. It’s hard to leave your brothers.”
Smith said that he looked at what the “team is doing as a whole. If one gets 30 and still lose, team-wise we didn’t do our job.”
McCord called the win a team effort. “Hats off to our staff. I thought we did a good job of preparing for them. They run a lot of good stuff. Coach Smith does a great job with those guys. They had a great season. Anthony is a good friend. He is a super-nice guy. I have a lot of respect for the program. I think the best days are yet to come for those guys,” he said.
Dyer County has had its share of success. In 2012-13 the Choctaws were state runner-up, finishing 32-4 after winning the regular season and district tournament champions, the region championships and sub-state championship.
They were district champions in 2011-12 while going 30-2. In 2010-11 they were 28-3. The banners in the gym show a sub-state finalist in 2008-09 and a 32-3 final record.
The Choctaws have been one of the best teams in the state with a 29-6 record in 2000-01, 30-4 in 2001-02, 30-8 in 2006-07, and 32-2 in 2007-08.
“You can look at their banners, look at the court, look at the nice stands. They got the organ seats over there. It’s full,” said Smith. “You come way up here to play against that. You have got to remember it’s still a game of basketball. You have to defend and put the ball in the hoop.”
Before the game, Smith said it would take a complete team effort “coming up here in an environment. You can’t let the crowd get to them. We are a hard-nosed team. We play hard as a team. We are a team with no super-star player.”
The Panthers tried to stymie the Choctaws with a man-to-man, mix-it-up defense. Offensively they employed a five-out, try-to-shadow the ball that everyone touches. “Bread and butter we get it down low to Jonathan,” said Smith.
The Choctaws had four players that average in double figures. Considering the seniors they lost from the 2013-14 team, “to still be playing at this point in time, to be district champions, to be district tournament champions (their seventh in nine seasons) in what was supposed to be a down year, it shows you it’s not what everybody believes or thinks, it’s what our kids believe. I am so proud of them,” said McCord.
The difference in the game said Dyer’s Ashton Mitchell, “We played as a team. We didn’t have as many turnovers. The last time we came out, we were excited to be in Florida. Tonight we came out focused and ready to get down to business. We executed really good. The big kid 14 (Bowlan) in the post did his thing. He pretty much got what he wanted. We had a body on him for a couple of times. I felt like if we can stick together and stay as a family, we can win state.” (Arlington ended Dyer County’s season, 72-52, in region semifinals in Munford on Feb. 25).
Bowlan, McGill, Underhill, C.J. Burrow, Corterrian Kimmons, Terence Minion are seniors.
“This is a fine group of young men,” said Smith. “We told them 10 to 20 years from now, they can call us. We will still be available.”
A junior, Young had a message for Smith after the loss. A text by Young that Smith passed on read, “I know this is a tough loss coach. It was a long year with high expectations that we didn’t all the way complete. But you did a great job being a coach this year. … Thanks for being a great example for us. Spiritually and just in life. God has our back and He’ll continue to do great things for us. But we’ll be alright coach. I’m looking forward to playing for you in my last season of high school come this summer and next year.”
Written by Bill Sorrell, special to the Express.
