By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Jacksonville Red Devils completed the first round robin on 5A-Central Conference play unscathed on Tuesday, beating Sylvan Hills 74-61 in Sherwood, and maintaining a two-game lead in the conference standings.
Jacksonville (17-3, 7-0) still did not play well enough to impress coach Vic Joyner, who, with two state championship, three state final appearances and five semifinal berths, has come to expect a high level of play.
“I know what elite-level basketball looks like, and we’re not there right now,” said Joyner. “We’ve got to get better or this is not a championship team.”
Particularly frustrating to Joyner was what he perceived as his team’s loss of focus and energy in the third quarter. The Red Devils took a 40-26 lead into halftime, but the Bears stormed back to pull to within 55-49 with 1:45 left in the third quarter on a Ronnie Hinton three pointer – his third of the quarter.
“Again we stopped closing out on the shooters in the second half like we did in the first half,” Joyner said. “We stopped running our sets on offense. We’re out of position on defense, and let their big man dribble from the top of the key, all the way down the lane and dunk on us – nobody rotating over. It’s not championship-level basketball. It’s as simple as that.”
One player that drew praise from Joyner was reserve post player Reggie Barnes. He was the fifth man off the bench of the 11 Red Devils that played, and finished with six points and eight rebounds.
“Reggie goes hard all the time in every practice,” Joyner said. “I need more kids on my team like Reggie. Other kids will be loafing around, pouting or whatever in practice, Reggie’s going hard.”
Joyner then called Barnes over.
“What did I tell you yesterday about how hard you work in practice?” Joyner asked the 6-foot-3 Barnes.
“That it would pay off,” Barnes answered.
“And did it pay off tonight?” Joyner inquired.
“Yes sir,” answered Barnes.
“You’ll notice he played almost the whole second half because he proved in practice I could count on him to give 100 percent when he’s out there - even if it’s just for a couple of minutes,” Joyner said.
Barnes’ play also didn’t go unnoticed by Sylvan Hills coach Kevin Davis.
“I thought the kid that came off the bench, No. 21 (Barnes) got some offensive rebounds and little stickbacks that really hurt us,” Davis said. “He got a couple there when we were starting to come back where he just out-worked us and got into position when we didn’t. They’re hard to rebound against because of their length and athleticism, but we could’ve done a lot better than we did on the boards. That’s something that we’ve struggled with all year. And when you’re playing a team that’s athletic and longer than you are, and they crash the boards hard like Jacksonville does, it can get ugly if you’re not doing it as well.”
Jacksonville outrebounded Sylvan Hills 37-17. Center Kanaan Jackson recorded his eighth double double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
Sylvan Hills center David Johnson opened the fourth quarter with the dunk that Joyner referenced. Johnson threw the dunk down with authority as three Red Devils stood under the goal, causing the home crowd to erupt to its loudest of the night. Johnson’s bucket made it 61-53 with 7:46 left in the game. The Bears closed it to 62-58 with 5:37 left when Johnson hit one of two free throws, and Bears’ guard Nate Burchett was fouled while battling to rebound the miss. He hit both free throws to make it a four-point game, but the Bears could get no closer.
The two teams traded turnovers on four-straight possessions. Jacksonville’s Damarion Freeman then blocked shots on two-consecutive Sylvan Hills possessions. The offensive drought by the Bears allowed the Red Devils to slowly push the lead back to 10 on a bucket by Devin Campbell with 3:25 remaining.
Campbell led all scorers with 22 points. Freshman Tyree Appleby added nine for Jacksonville.
Cordy Winston led the Bears with 16 points while Aumonie Armond scored 12 and Hinton and Burchett added 10 apiece.
