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02/21 - 5:20 PM Boys Basketball Final Sunshine 82 Brantley 80
DOTHAN, Alabama---Wesley Person Jr. made shot after shot after shot Friday night against Sunshine from college-range 3-pointers, to hanging floaters off the glass to layups with defenders hanging off him.
The 6-foot-3 Brantley senior and son of former NBA player and Auburn great Wesley Person Sr. finished with a career-high 55 points in the AHSAA Class 1A Regional final at the Dothan Civic Center.
But it was a Lucky shot from Sunshine that made the tournament’s finest individual performance an effort in defeat as the Bulldogs fell 82-80.
Person Jr. drove hard to the basket, absorbing contact from a Sunshine defender to tie the game up with 19 seconds to go but couldn’t get connect on the free-throw attempt to give his team the lead, giving Sunshine one more chance at victory.
They put the ball in the hands of Walter Jones who swung it to Lucky Travis on the wing. Lucky, scoped the defense, penetrated then hop-stepped his way to a double-clutch layup with two seconds on the clock to lift his team next week’s Final 48 state tournament in Birmingham.
“My thing was I didn’t want Person to get that ball again,” Sunshine’s coach also named Walter Jones. “Once he missed that free throw at the end and it was tied and we had it at 19 seconds, I knew we weren’t going to shoot the ball unless it was under three seconds and then we take it into overtime at the end of the game.
Coach Jones added: “The strange thing about it is I had been fussing at him (Travis) about dribble penetration because he gets a lot of his shots blocked because he’s small but he’s stubborn and he’s lucky.”
The Tigers (25-2) will face the Northwest Regional champion Parrish Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.
Person finished the night 15 of 26 from the field, including 3-for-7 shooting from 3-point range and went 22-for-28 from the foul line as he seemingly took Sunshine’s entire team to the basket throughout the night to best a previous career-high of 45 points, scored earlier this season. He also had nine rebounds against Sunshine.
“That was the greatest game our team has played all season,” Person said. “I’m proud of our guys. They (Sunshine) have a really good team and for us to be able to play them and stay up there, we accomplished a lot.”
Travis led Sunshine with 21 points none bigger than his final deuce of the night.
“I just saw that it was two seconds left,” Travis said. “We were either going to go for the win or go into overtime. I went for the win and I made it.”
Tournament MVP Cletrell Pope, a 6-7 junior, had a double-double with a team-high 20 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out with 3:10 to play. Walter Jones, also a junior, finished with 13 points and Herbert Jones had 11 for the Tigers.
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