Spring Creek boys beat Rosewood, again

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on February 7, 2015 11:36 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

Spring Creek fans clamored, screamed and implored Rosewood to take a shot as the seconds ticked down in a tight game.

No matter what they tried in the final 25 seconds, the Eagles couldn't get a good look at the basket. A 3-point attempt went long and despite getting the rebound, a last-second heave wouldn't have mattered -- even if it dropped through the net.

One of the county's quickly-budding rivalries, Spring Creek downed Rosewood, 57-53, in a pivotal Carolina 1-A Conference game played before a standing-room-only crowd Friday evening.

"That was the best defense we've played all year," Spring Creek coach Taylor Jones said. "We didn't take our foot off for one minute in that quarter. Especially late in the game we didn't give them any space."

The Gators' defense was certainly the story.

They planned to take the Eagles' leading scorers -- Zack Barnes and Dennis Mitchell -- out of the game. The Gators draped Mitchell with two and sometimes three defenders each time he touched the ball in post.

That left his teammates open for jumpers. And for a while, the Eagles shot themselves back into the game. They hit 3-pointers on five consecutive possessions in the third quarter tie the game up.

"We were able to hit some shots to keep ourselves in it, but then there were some possessions right after that stretch we didn't take good shots and we didn't execute offensively and I wasn't too pleased with that," Rosewood coach Daniel Mitchell said.

Jones called a timeout and reminded his players to stay the course. Eventually, the shots stopped falling and the Gators were able to hold on.

"I told them to just believe and stick to the gameplan, keep doing what we were doing," Jones said. "To their credit they did that. I'm very proud of them."

Heckled by a hostile Rosewood Rowdies fan section, Brandon Gonzalez had a game-high 15 points and grabbed six rebounds. Trey Hammonds led the way on the defensive end with 5 steals and dropped in 12 points.

"It was a great atmosphere tonight," Gonzalez said. "It's fun to play in a game like that. It's great."

Dennis Mitchell finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds for Rosewood. Marquail Almontaser was the main beneficiary from the Gators doubling the Rosewood big man. He finished with 12 points, including three 3s.

"I thought he played with a ton of effort tonight," Daniel Mitchell said. "He was able to knock down some shots for us and did a pretty good job running the offense."

Airic Murray scored 10 points and had eight rebounds for the Eagles.