By By BRUCE HIXON – Sports Editor
Flomaton may be just 4-23 this season, but two of the Hurricanes four wins have come at the expense of the W.S. Neal Blue Eagles.
The second of those two Flomaton victories was Friday's 58-49 victory on the Hurricanes home court. The loss in the Blue Eagles' regular season finale snapped W.S. Neal's season high four-game winning streak.
Much like their last encounter where Flomaton won 62-54 on the same court at the Escambia County Tournament, it was the Hurricanes perimeter game that inflicted most of the damage.
Just like their last meeting where Flomaton hit nine three-pointers, the Hurricanes again hit nine from behind the arc. Also like the last meeting, Hurricanes senior Clay Simpson hit five of those treys on his way to 29 points.
Flomaton built a 32-20 halftime lead on the strength of those five three-pointers by Simpson. Although the Blue Eagles cut that gap to 40-32 by the end of the third period, they were unable to get any closer down the stretch.
Cecil Thomas led W.S. Neal (9-17) with 11 points.
The Blue Eagles' junior varsity capped off a 15-5 season with a 54-30 win over Flomaton.
Chris Brazile led W.S. Neal with 11 points, while Jimmy Wilson, William Shell and Chris Payne all had nine.
The Blue Eagles will get their fourth shot this season against T.R. Miller when they square off in the opening round of the Class 3A Area 1 Tournament to be played at Clarke County Friday at 6 p.m.
At Flomaton
W.S. Neal 9 11 12 17 – 49
Flomaton 14 18 8 18 – 58
W.S. NEAL (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Thomas 2-2-1-11; Ron. Travis 0-3-0-9; Sanders 3-0-3-9; Bailey 2-0-0-4; McMillian 1-1-0-5; Alexander 1-0-1-3; Roh. Travis 0-0-2-2 (Totals: 10-6-11-49)
FLOMATON (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Simpson 5-5-4-29; Walton 4-1-2-13; Banks 3-02-8; Woods 2-0-2-6; Brooks 0-0-1-1; Ellis 0-0-1-1 (Totals: 14-9-12-58)
Junior varsity
W.S. Neal 12 20 12 10 – 54
Flomaton 2 11 10 7 – 30
W.S. NEAL (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Brazile 5-0-1-11; Shell 3-1-0-9; Wilson 4-0-1-9; Payne 4-0-1-9; Nicholson 1-1-1-6; J. Travis 3-0-0-6; Lambert 1-0-0-2; Lanier 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 22-2-4-54)
FLOMATON (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Lambeth 0-2-3-9; Spears 1-1-1-6; Berry 1-0-2-4; Folse 1-0-2-4; Chavers 1-0-2-4; Brantley 1-0-0-2; Dixon 0-0-1-1 (Totals: 5-3-11-30)
Eagles win home finale
W.S. Neal won its regular season home finale Tuesday when it downed the Pleasant Home Eagles 61-36.
It was the rubber match between the teams, as W.S. Neal had won a 59-44 decision at Pleasant Home and the Eagles won a 56-46 rematch at the Florala Tournament.
Perhaps the other big difference was the tempo of the game. Pleasant Home got off to a quick lead in the game at Florala and dictated the tempo. Monday was W.S. Neal's turn to dictate the tempo.
W.S. Neal's defense allowed just a field goal to Derrick Taylor in the first 10 minutes of the game.
While the Blue Eagles' offense did not get off to a robust start, it took advantage of a pair of buckets and two free throws by Sherman Sanders, two buckets by Cecil Thomas and an offensive rebound bucket by Jake Bailey to build a 12-2 lead in the first quarter.
W.S. Neal delivered what appeared to be a possible knockout blow in the second quarter. Sparked by a pair of treys by Thomas and buckets by Bailey, Sanders and B.J. McMillian, the Blue Eagles opened up a 25-7 lead with 2:49 left in the half.
Pleasant Home made one of its few threats in the game, as it used buckets by Adam Copeland, Josh Dozier and Andrew Nichols cut the W.S. Neal to 27-15 at halftime.
W.S. Neal and Pleasant Home alternated the first seven buckets of the third quarter although the Blue Eagles finally put back-to-back buckets together late in the quarter by McMillian and Joe Bradley to take a 37-21 lead into the fourth quarter.
That lead was down to 41-27 with six minutes left when the Blue Eagles strung together a decisive 13-2 surge. McMillian capped of that run with a drive to the bucket and a three-pointer that stretched the lead up to 54-29 with three minutes left.
W.S. Neal's junior varsity also had little trouble with Pleasant Home, as it downed the Eagles 48-27.
Jamar Travis pumped in 15 points to lead the Blue Eagles.
At W.S. Neal
Pleasant Home 2 13 6 15 – 36
W.S. Neal 12 15 10 24 – 61
PLEASANT HOME (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Nichols 4-0-0-8; Rabren 3-0-0-6; Powell 2-0-2-6; Taylor 1-1-0-5; Dozier 1-1-0-5; Copeland 2-0-0-4; Bush 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 14-2-2-36)
W.S. NEAL (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Thomas 7-2-0-20; Sanders 5-0-2-12; McMillian 4-1-0-11; Bailey 3-1-0-9; Ron. Travis 1-0-0-2; Green 1-0-0-2; Madison 1-0-0-2; J. Bradley 1-0-0-2; Alexander 0-0-1-1 (Totals: 23-4-3-61)
Junior varsity
Pleasant Home 4 7 7 9 – 27
W.S. Neal 11 11 14 12 – 48
PLEASANT HOME (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Dozier 2-0-4-8; Davis 1-1-0-5; Sutton 2-0-0-4; Weaver 1-0-1-3; Godwin 1-0-0-2; Thompson 0-0-2-2; Taylor 1-0-0-2; Odom 0-0-1-1 (Totals: 8-1-8-27)
W.S. NEAL (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) J. Travis 7-0-1-15; Payne 3-0-4-10; Wilson 1-1-2-7; McCreary 2-0-0-4; Nicholson 2-0-0-4; Lambert 1-0-1-3; Shell 0-1-0-3; Brazile 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 17-2-8-48)