SULLIGENT - Red Bay’s boys fell one bucket short of a championship in Friday night’s 50-49 loss to top-seeded Sulligent in the finals of the Class 2A, Area 14 tournament, but head coach John Torisky didn’t hesitate when asked if the Tigers were capable of going on the road and winning a sub-regional game to earn a spot in Hanceville.
“Oh yeah,” said Torisky, whose team will head south on Tuesday night to battle Area 11 champion Tarrant for a regional berth. “There’s no doubt. It’ll be a challenge, for sure—playing on the road, in a different environment, at a place we’ve never been before. But I’ve done some scouting and watched some film, and we feel like Sulligent is the best team we’ll play before Hanceville.
“Tommy [Chism, the Blue Devils’ head coach] has a great team. For us to come in here tonight, in their gym, and be right there at the end with a chance to win it, says a lot about our guys and what they’re capable of. I thought our guys played great tonight. They played hard, and at this time of the year it’s all about playing hard. We just didn’t get the breaks in the end.”
Any game that comes down to the final possession or two [Red Bay junior guard Hunter Bays hit a three at the buzzer to make it a one-point spread] leaves both teams contemplating countless what-ifs, and Friday’s contest was no exception. What if the Tigers (17-12) hadn’t turned the ball over on seven straight trips in the first quarter? What if the Blue Devils hadn’t missed 12 of their first 16 shots and had been able to build more than the four-point cushion they had at the end of one?
“I think our guys might have been a little tight, a little nervous early in the game,” Torisky said. “This is a spot we haven’t really been in before. It’s new to us. I yelled at them a little, and after that rough start I thought we settled down and were fine.
“Defensively, we did everything we needed to do.”
Junior post player Gath Weatherford knocked down the first of his four three-pointers on the night to open the second quarter, and Red Bay grabbed a 14-13 lead on a three by Bays at the 5:15 mark. Sulligent senior guard Tyreke Metcalf shook off an 0-for-5 start from the floor to score twice in the final three minutes of the half and send the Blue Devils into the break with a 19-16 advantage.
Weatherford opened the second half with another three to tie the game, but a three by Metcalf and two buckets by senior post player Deshaun Sullivan helped Sulligent surge to a 26-22 lead midway through the third. That’s when another of those pivotal what-if moments (the first of a handful over the game’s final 12-plus minutes) took place.
When Red Bay visited Sulligent back on January 4, Torisky felt like the Tigers allowed the rim-protecting presence of the 6'6 Sullivan to get in their heads a bit. As a result, the Blue Devils dominated defensively and avenged a December loss to Red Bay with a 60-30 rout.
“He blocked a shot early in the game,” Torisky said, “and after that we were hesitant to try and go inside. We only made like five shots [eight, to be exact] the whole night. When [Sullivan] comes to play, he can have that kind of affect on a game. He didn’t do much when we played them the first time, but he made his mark on the second game.
“The key word for us tonight was ‘attack.’ We wanted to keep attacking the basket, even with him down there. We knew he was gonna get a few blocks, but we wanted to keep attacking.”
That aggressive mindset began to pay off in Friday’s third quarter, when the Tigers quickly earned their way into the bonus and went 6-for-9 from the foul line. But, as Torisky said, Sullivan was bound to get his blocks. Bays drove the paint from the left wing midway through the third and appeared to have an easy layup that would have trimmed the lead to two. Instead, Sullivan rotated over in a flash and swatted the shot off the backboard, leading to a fast-break opportunity the other way and a three-point play by Metcalf that made it 29-22 at the 3:52 mark.
That five-point swing would loom large.
Red Bay got two free throws from Colton Corum and a bucket by freshman Braden Ray to get back within four, but the Blue Devils made another pivotal defensive play to close out the quarter. The Tigers had possession and were looking to hold for one shot when Metcalf poked the ball free and dashed the other way for another critical three-point play, pushing the lead to 34-27 at the end of three.
“That play stands out, because for the most part we did a good job of making them work and not giving them layups tonight,” Torisky said. “They’re really good when they get out in the open floor, because they have guys who can finish right at the rim.”
Sulligent’s lead swelled to eight at 37-29 on a three by Metcalf early in the fourth, but Weatherford answered with a three at the 6:00 mark and later made two free throws to cut the lead to three at 37-34.
The Blue Devils’ Dylan Paul went 1-for-2 at the line with 4:35 remaining, but a breakdown on the boards allowed Sulligent senior Hayden Nolen to rebound the miss on the second free throw. Nolen stuck it back in and got fouled, sinking the free throw to complete a four-point trip and extend the lead to 41-34 midway through the fourth.
“An offensive rebound on a free throw,” Torisky lamented afterwards. “I was about to yell at him, but Gath turned around and said, ‘My fault.’ He knew. That was a big play, but our guys were still able to battle back.”
Peyton Green made a free throw for Red Bay at the 4:13 mark, and then Weatherford drilled a stone-cold three from well beyond the arc at the top of the key, getting the Tigers back within three at 41-38 with 2:51 to go.
Weatherford, a 6’3 junior averaging 16.0 points per game coming in, finished with 18 on Friday and kept Red Bay in it with his long-distance shooting.
“We expect that kind of game from Gath,” Torisky said. “When our big guys [Weatherford and Ray, who added 11 points on Friday] are making shots like they were tonight, it makes us tougher to guard because we’re able to stretch the court. Both of those guys hit some big shots tonight.”
Immediately after sinking the deep three, Weatherford slid in front of a driving Sullivan on the other end and took a charge—much to the displeasure of the Blue Devil faithful. Ray missed a three that would have tied the game, and then a layup by Metcalf made it 43-38 with 1:30 remaining.
That’s when perhaps the most important what-if play of the night occurred. Red Bay sophomore guard Clay Allison drove down the right side of the lane and drew contact from a Sulligent defender. The whistle blew, which was expected. The call was traveling, which was not.
Following the turnover, the Tigers fouled Metcalf on the other end, but before the senior guard could attempt the front end of a one-and-one, Torisky was hit with a technical for protesting the travel call on Allison. Metcalf missed the front end, and the Blue Devils then split the technical free throws and turned the ball over on their ensuing possession, so the tech only cost Red Bay one point—but that one point may have (may have) ultimately been the difference between losing in regulation or going into overtime.
“I’ll take the blame for that one. It’s my fault for getting the technical,” Torisky said after the game, still clearly perplexed about the travel call and, for that matter, about the technical, too. “I don’t know what I did to get it. I was just asking how and why that was a walk. Clay felt like he got fouled. I felt like he got fouled. It just didn’t go our way.”
Red Bay still wouldn’t go away, slicing the lead in half on a three-pointer by Ray that made it 44-41 with a minute remaining. Sulligent hit 3-of-4 free throws to make it 47-41, and the lead was still six with roughly 15 seconds remaining when freshman Jalen Vinson went coast-to-coast for a layup to get Red Bay back within four at 50-46.
Sulligent turned the ball over on the ensuing inbounds, keeping hope alive for the Tigers. Ray drove baseline but missed, grabbing his own rebound and kicking it out to Bays. He buried the three as time expired, but Red Bay came up one point short.
Neither team shot the ball particularly well on Friday, with the Tigers finishing at 33 percent (15-for-46) and the Blue Devils at 35 percent (17-for-48). Both teams attempted 19 free throws, with Red Bay making 12 and Sulligent hitting 11. The Tigers made seven threes, compared to five for Sulligent, and the total rebounds were dead even at 27 apiece.
The game was as close on the stat sheet as it was on the scoreboard, lending credence to the notion that the Tigers—who haven’t been to Hanceville since 1995—are more than capable of going into Tarrant on Tuesday night and leaving with a win and a regional berth.
Weatherford finished 5-for-12 from the field and 4-for-5 from the line on Friday, pulling down nine rebounds to go with his 18 points. Ray had 11 points and eight boards, and Bays added eight points. Allison finished with five points and three assists, and Corum scored four points. Vinson had two, and Green added one.
Metcalf made seven of his final 10 shots and led all scorers with 19 points. Sullivan scored 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting, adding eight rebounds and four blocks. The Blue Devils will host Area 11 runner-up Altamont in a sub-regional game on Tuesday.