Eufaula, Barbour County will meet tonight in tourney semis

Meeting Class 2A second-ranked Barbour County, one of its Area 4 opponents, for the first time this year on Thursday, Wicksburg wanted to see how it matched up against the Jaguars.

Barbour County, though, had its own mission – to send a powerful message to the Panthers.

Using its superior size inside combined with solid outside shooting, Barbour County dominated Wicksburg from the start in beating up the Panthers 57-31 in the second round of the Downtown Dothan Hoops Classic at the Dothan Civic Center.

Barbour County (15-0) advanced to tonight’s semifinals at 6 p.m. against rival Eufaula, a 59-44 winner over Ashford on Thursday.

Wicksburg (13-3), which beat Class 6A Dothan in an opening-round tournament game on Tuesday, was eliminated from the tourney.

“After beating Dothan, I knew they would come out thinking they could play us, so we had to turn to our A game,” Barbour County head coach Raymond White said. “We had to come and show we were the team to beat.”

Barbour County opened up a 7-2 lead two minutes into the game. Wicksburg cut the margin to three twice, but the Jaguars built a 14-7 lead at the quarter break then pulled away in the second quarter, outscoring the Panthers 15-4 to seize a 29-11 halftime advantage.

The Jaguars did it by pounding it inside to 6-foot-6 senior center Willie Eutsey then to his younger brother, 6-foot-4 sophomore center Kendarius Eutsey. And when the defense collapsed, they kicked it outside to Takwain Whigham. The trio accounted for 26 of the 29 first-half points.

Whigham had 13 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Kendarius Eutsey had seven points and Willie Eutsey six in the opening half.

It was more of the same in the second half with Nick Johnson and Trevon Patterson joining Whigham outside to compliment the Eutseys inside.

“That is our game as we want to start inside then go outside,” White said. “Inside-out. We have the inside and we have shooters. You have to double-team the inside or outside. You have to make a choice.”

The Panthers had to battle Barbour County’s inside mass without 6-foot-2 senior center Gabe Richards, who was out sick, leaving Wicksburg with seven main players for the game.

“We were without our best interior defensive player, so we had to guard those quality players with a 150-pound sophomore,” Wicksburg head coach Scott Whitaker said. “That is a tough chore for him and for the team.”

Compounding the problems for Wicksburg was an anemic offense. The Panthers made only 4-of-23 in the opening half, including 1-of-12 in the second quarter.

The Panther struggles began from the start, missing three shots in the first four possessions.

“We apparently had no intention of following the game plan (early on),” said Whitaker, who wanted his team to take off at least 15 to 20 seconds on each possession to shorten the amount of Barbour County offensive chances. “In the first couple of possessions, we jacked up a shot within two passes of crossing halfcourt.

“When you are running seven men against a team like that, you have absolutely no chance of surviving it with that rate of shot selection.”

After the initial struggles, Wicksburg began to run its deliberate offense and got some open looks – mostly outside -- but struggled to hit the shots as Jaguar defenders came charging out.

“We got quality shots, but they are big, quick and play hard, so even when you get open shots, you rush to get shots off,” Whitaker said.

Barbour County continued its powerful inside-outside attack in the second half, building a big a lead as 31 before finishing with a 26-point win.

Whigham led the Jaguars with 18 points, hitting 7-of-10 from the floor, and Willie Eutsey followed with 16, highlighted by 7-of-8 shooting.

Barbour County finished at 49 percent shooting (22-of-45).

“I think we have the best shooters around,” White said. “This is probably my best overall shooting team that I have ever had.”

Eufaula 59, Ashford 44: Eufaula set up a third game against its county rivals of Barbour County, winning Thursday’s second game over the Yellow Jackets.

The Tigers (9-5) never trailed against Ashford (6-9), but didn’t pull away until the last minute.

Eufaula led virtually the whole game between four and eight points, though it did inch up to a 10-point lead twice (39-29 midway in the third and 45-35 early in fourth). Ashford had the margin down to one twice (5-4 in first quarter and 25-24 last first half).

“My hat is off to a tough, scrappy Ashford Yellow Jacket team,” Eufaula head coach Mike Henry said. “We knew they would play hard and play tough. We are glad we were good enough to get it done and move on to the next round.”

Ashford cut the early fourth-quarter 10-point deficit to six (45-39) on two Rafael Alvarado free throws and two more by Troy Griggs with 5:22 left.

The Jackets had two chances to cut it to four, but had a turnover then missed a shot. A technical foul on Ashford after the miss helped the Tigers to three points – 1-of-2 technical shots by Ben Thomas and a driving layup by Jaylin Robinson.

The advantage stood at 49-42 with 1:40 left when Eufaula pulled away for good with a 10-2 run to end the game.

Thomas led Eufaula with 16 points and Robinson had 15.

Alvarado led Ashford with 20 points and Griggs had 11.

“I was proud of my guys for competing, but I am not proud of the way we finished because they got to fussing with one another,” Ashford head coach Bart McWaters said. “They got frustrated at the end and we can’t have that.”

The Jacket offense struggled, hitting just 35 percent (13-of-37) and missing 11 free throws in the first half.

“We are not playing as a team real well on offense,” McWaters said. “I thought we played hard and I was proud of them. We didn’t shoot our foul shots well and didn’t shoot the ball well and it hurt us.”

Eufaula now gears up for its third game against Barbour County. The Jaguars won the first two games 57-45 and 59-44.

“We are going to have to play great basketball,” Henry said. “If we don’t, it will be a tough night, but if we play smart and we play hard, we will have the chance to possibly battle with Barbour County down to the end."

Henry added, “We want to keep it close. We don’t want it to get away early. If we can hang around for three quarters, we have got a chance.”