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Sand Rock's Brannon Burt braces for contact with a Ranburne player during their Class 2A Northeast Regional semifinal game on Monday.
He was going to do his part to make sure the Wildcats didn’t overlook Ranburne on Monday in the Class 2A Northeast Regional semifinals at Jacksonville State University.
Sand Rock was trailing by eight early in the second quarter, but two crucial 3-pointers by Burt on back-to-back possessions helped propel the Wildcats ahead to stay. They captured a 78-61 victory to advance to the 2A regional final.
Sand Rock (27-3) will face Section (23-7) on Thursday at 4:45 p.m. Section defeated Vincent 59-56 in other 2A regional semifinal action on Monday at JSU.
Ranburne’s season ends at 12-13.
“They were like us last year,” Burt said of Ranburne. “We come down here and didn’t have the best record in the world. People overlooked us. They thought we had gotten hot on just a few certain games to send us in. We knew we couldn’t overlook them because something like that could happen to us.”
Burt led the Wildcats with 30 points, including a 3-of-4 performance outside the arc and an 11-of-12 shooting night from the free-throw line. Burt also had four assists.
Burt said the Wildcats came out nervously at Pete Mathews Coliseum, but once they settled in, they took control.
A large part of taking control came on a 13-2 run in the final three minutes of the second quarter – a quarter in which the Wildcats outscored Ranburne 21-8 to take a 35-24 lead at the half.
“They were up 22-14, but we hung in,” Sand Rock coach Brian Mackey said. “They were handling the trap really well and passing over it, but when we dropped back in zone and matched, we rebounded well out of it. We weren’t just following around as they were running flex. We just kind of switched on it and got some big rebounds. They didn’t score, and we got in our game, pushed and attacked.”
Ranburne coach Rodney Murphree said “it took us a while to adjust” to what Sand Rock was doing.
“They changed some things up,” he said. “They played a lot of guys, and they got us in transition several times. That little spurt (in the second quarter) was the big key to what happened in the game. That kind of opened it up.”
The third quarter was almost a mirror image of the second.
The Wildcats went on a 21-10 run to go up 56-34 heading into the fourth. Ranburne began to figure out what the Wildcats were doing in the fourth, outscoring them 27-22, but by then it was too late.
“Ranburne was scrappy,” Mackey said. “They like to control the tempo, keep it low scoring. We wanted for them to get up and down the court. Numbers-wise, I thought we had more that could get up and down the court. We kind of put some pressure on that and it paid off in the second half.”
With Burt and the other Wildcat guards beginning to find a rhythm outside, that opened things up for the boys down low.
Eighth-grade forward Riley Norris added 12 points, eight rebounds and two blocks for the Wildcats. Sophomore forward Chad Thompson netted 11 points.
“We’ve been trying to work down low lately, so when they are collapsing, someone’s open for the three,” Norris said. “We got it going in the second quarter with Brannon. We started getting on a roll, and after we settled down, we started playing good.
Thompson also expressed the importance of the Wildcat guards opening things up.
“The guards did a good job of pushing the break down the court,” he said. “That opened the opportunities in the post for us.”
Another of Sand Rock’s guards had a strong outing. Sophomore Drew Norris finished with eight points, four boards, three assists and two steals. Senior forward Chase Brisendine came away with five points.
Isaac Smith led Ranburne with 18 points and eight rebounds. Daniel Chambers had 15 points and five assists. Seth Hornsby tallied 13 points, six boards and a pair of steals.
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