McIntosh sweeps Sandy Creek basketball teams

By Jacob Renie
Sandy Creek Class of 2013

Both the McIntosh girls' and boys' basketball teams came out on top against the Sandy Creek Patriots Saturday night. While the two games were very different in terms of speed of play, two similarities did stand out. In both games the Chiefs had to fight back to win as they trailed the Patriots early.

For the Patriots, they lost both of their games because they out fouled their opponents and the Chiefs were almost perfect from the foul line.

The girls' game began when Safiya Martin of Sandy Creek won the tip and Sydney Jarmon followed with a 3-pointer. The junior made a total of three shots outside the line and three rebounds. The Patriots’ early full-court press initially foiled the Chiefs as they outscored McIntosh 14-7 in the first quarter. The strong Patriot forward Martin struggled in the second missing several inside shots. Sandy Creek led 23-22 at the half.

McIntosh took a 40-38 heading into the fourth quarter and the Chiefs pulled ahead thanks to Gabby Seiler who went 4-4 as she sunk four 3-pointers in to seal the deal against the Patriots. Cassidy Williams led McIntosh with 24 points and Minnae Harris led Sandy Creek with 14 points. Jasmine Jones also contributed with ten points and two steals. Martin dominated down low with nine rebounds and McIntosh's Abby Birrel had six of her own. The final score stood at 55-48 as the McIntosh’s girls improved to 11-1 and the Patriots became 6-2.

The boys' game started off much the same with a steal by Patriot Christian Turner and a jump shot by Kenny Lewis. The first quarter was dominated by Lewis who had 13 of Sandy Creek's 19 points as the Patriots led 19-11. The second went much the same as Sandy Creek increased their lead to 34-25, mainly due to Sandy Creek controlling the rebounds.

In the third quarter, the Patriots continued to dominate as they extended their lead to to 15 points with a score of 46-31. But just as with the girls game, McIntosh battled back. The Chiefs eventually tied the game at 53 all with 1:48 left to play. The two teams exchanged scores for the next minute and were still tied with 45 seconds remaining. The ball was in Chief possession as they threw the ball in with 3.2 seconds left and Jordan Lyons forced a foul off of Lewis. Lyons promptly made three shots in with one second left as the Chiefs won 60-57.

Lyons led the Chiefs with five field goals, two from outside the line, and 11 points scored on free throws. Eleven points? Yes, the McIntosh boys scored a third of their points tonight off of free throws, shooting 20-23 against the undisciplined Patriot defense. Kenny Lewis shined for Sandy Creek with ten field goals, three 3-pointers, one steal, five rebounds, and four free throws for a total of 28 points, exactly half of the Patriot's points. Simply put, he was their offense.

Jason Eisele, head coach for the McIntosh boys team, said, "Our guys showed a lot of toughness at the end … If they play that hard for 32 minutes every game, we'll [go far]."

On the loss Sandy Creek boys' coach Willie Reese said, "I have to give McIntosh all the credit. They played hard. We let it slip away; we have to play complete games. That's the third game we lost like this. Our guys are young and still gotta learn."