Sharks chow down on some Tigers

by Gage Davis
The St. James Sharks took on the No. 2-ranked Wilson Tigers last night and pulled off a huge 47-43 upset.


Coming into the game the Sharks, were ranked 96th in the state, and the Tigers were ranked No. 2 in the state. The Tigers have one of the best players in the state, Brandon Jones, who averages 18 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game. With good defense by Matt Strange and TreDarius McCallum, the Sharks held him to only a couple of points and a handful of rebounds.

Junior Caleb Duggan for the Sharks came into the game with averaging 21 PPG, 3 APG and 5 RPG. Caleb doesn’t have to do it all alone because he has the help of J.C. Cavin, who averages 11 PPG, 3 APG per game and 3 SPG, and success came naturally. Caleb and J.C. both recently won Mammy’s Kitchen athlete of the week, back to back.

Throughout the game the two teams were going back and fourth trading blows. When the Sharks took a 7 point lead within the first two minutes of the game, the crowd thought the game was over. But the Tigers had something different in mind, as they went down the court they shot a three pointer. Then as we went down the court and shot, the Tigers got the rebound then they came down the court, and made another three pointer. Just like that, the game was a one point game and it was only three minutes into the game.

Coming down to the last quarter the Sharks were up by one point, which against the number 2 team in the state that was awesome. There was a saying that used to say, defense wins championships, and coming into the last quarter that’s all the Sharks wanted to do. In the last quarter the Tigers were up by as many as 6 but when the Sharks came down the court they would get fouled and they would make their free throws.

With 5.6 seconds left, TreDarius went to the line as we were up by 2, so all TreDarius had to do was make the two free throws and we would have clinched the game. As TreDarius made his first free throw the student section went down to the floor so that they could rush the stands. As TreDarius was about to shoot the last free throw you could imagine the expressions in all those students faces, but then as the ball spiraled threw the air and into the hoop, the Tigers inbounded the ball to run out the time and the Sharks had beat the number two team in the state, and the students got to rush the court.

The Sharks are now the top team in the region, so as they take on the other teams in the region come to the games and cheer on our own Sharks capture the region and maybe state title.