Niceville routs South Walton behind depth
Josh Hyber | @JoshHyberNWFDN | jhyber@nwfdailynews.com
NICEVILLE — Back in mid-November, in one of the area's first high school basketball games of the season, it took an Ashley Lane 3-pointer at the buzzer for 8A Niceville to edge 1A South Walton.
In Santa Rosa Beach that night, South Walton led by 16 at one point during the fourth quarter, but the Eagles outscored the Seahawks 28-14 in the final frame.
"I learned that night that we'll never give up during a game," Niceville head coach David Day said. "Even though we got down 16, we played hard and got back. That showed a lot of character. We could have folded the tent."
In a rematch on Tuesday night in Niceville, the Eagles (16-6) didn't need such heroics, beating the Seahawks (17-7) in a 60-37 rout. Ten players scored for the home team, and a suffocating defense forced the Seahawks into double-digit turnovers.
"We played the whole second half (this time)," Day said. "When we played over at their place we got off to a good start, got down and dug ourselves a hole … Tonight our defense was much better."
Lane led the Eagles with 18 points, while Grace Dowden added 10, Shvonya McDaniel added eight and Jasmine Griggs and Gabby Schuelke both had six. Savannah Slade, who was surrounded by Eagles every time she touched the ball, led South Walton with 15 points.
A 19-2 run from the end of the third quarter to the start of the fourth was the difference maker for the home team.
Holding a 33-29 lead midway through the third quarter, Griggs sank a left-wing 3 to put the Eagles up 36-29. A Lane layup and two McDaniel free throws then pushed the lead to 11 — Niceville's first of double-digits — at 40-29. From there, a 6-2 Eagles' run ended the quarter.
A Dowden 3 to start the final quarter began the fireworks. Lane kept it coming with a right-corner jumper to push the lead to 20 at 51-31.
Then it was Griggs' turn.
The sophomore guard tipped a loose ball to herself and went coast to coast before hitting a acrobatic layup to give the Eagles a 54-35 lead.
"I think it was overall energy. We were able to translate some turnovers into easy buckets and we finished easy buckets," Day said. "You can get turnovers all day long, but if you can't convert on the other end it kind of hurts you.
"I just liked the intensity we brought both offensively and defensively."
Niceville led by five at halftime after digging itself an early hole. The Eagles fell behind 8-0 — four from Slade — and didn't score until Lane sank a 3 four minutes and 54 seconds in.
In a textbook example of the saying "basketball is a game of runs," the Lane shot sparked an 11-0 Eagles run: A Griggs jumper from the right elbow, a Hayden Randall layup, a coast to coast layup from Griggs and two Antionette Lewis free-throws.
In-between the first and second, South Walton head coach Kevin Craig barked at his team, "We just gave up 10-straight points because we're turning the ball over!"
A Coble 3 from the right wing at the buzzer tied the score at 11-11 at the end of one.
But it was the team effort that sparked the Eagles on Tuesday night.
"That's us," Day said. "We're really deep. I've got 14 people on the bench and any one of them can come off and help at any time. It's always about who's playing well."