After a roller coaster of a season, the PMHS Falcons ended their season with a 64-44 loss to the Southport Cardinals at the Southport Fieldhouse in the 4A sectional semifinal and a 4-20 overall record. Leading up to the game, the Falcon’s scouting report highlighted Cardinal sharpshooter Jack Turner. The team was able to keep Turner in check and only allowed one three from him.
“We made sure Anthony [Garrett-Towns] stayed close to Turner,” head coach Mark Mcfarland said. “They did a good job on him.”
Another name on the scouting report was 6’7’’ forward James Kalala. The team did not have as much success containing him, giving up mostly second-chance points.
“We kept getting disconnected from [Kalala], so when they missed a shot, he was able to run there free without any contact and rebound the basketball and put it back in.”
The Cardinals drew first blood but guard Bryce Mathis responded the next possession with a three to get the Falcons started. The intensity of the rivalry playoff game came to light early after a hard foul called on Garrett-Towns resulted in a light-shoving match midway through the first quarter. Turner missed both free throws for the Cardinals. Garrett-Towns was unshaken and quickly drew a foul of his own, and made both of his shots at the charity stripe. The first quarter ended with the Falcons behind 14-9.
The Cardinals widened their lead before McFarland called a timeout halfway through the second quarter. After the adjustments, the Falcons were true from the three-point line on back-to-back possessions. Both teams experienced miscues towards the end of the quarter after a turnover by the Falcons, a Cardinal player face-planted while he tried to gather the ball as the buzzer sounded. Garrett-Towns proved to be a nuisance in the paint, drawing multiple fouls and scoring half of the Falcon’s points. Despite nearly tripling their points the Falcons still trailed 30-21 into the half.
Garrett-Towns kept his foot on the gas and opened the second half with a bucket for the better birds. Shortly after he picked the pocket of an oblivious Cardinal and went coast-to-coast and made a heavily contested layup. Not learning from their mistakes, Mathis made an almost identical play the very next possession, except this time euro-stepped his way to the basket. Tempers flared towards the end of the quarter, and lanky basketball player’s limbs tangled once again after an impressive Southport acting job drew a whistle and an intentional foul was called on Mathis. The third quarter ended with the Falcons down 50-32.
The Falcons fought the good fight throughout the fourth quarter. An alley-oop dunk by none other than the high-flying Garret-Towns, Assisted by BJ Sibanda injected some momentum into the crowd. With two minutes left in regulation, the crowd once again let out a roar of cheers as senior Brady Cox checked in for his, and the other seniors’ last hoorah.
“I try to build for the future…[and] give those guys experience and playing bigger roles because they’re younger.,” Mcfarland said.
