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Columbia guard Zamarion Jones initiates the offense against South Dade during the Hitchcock's Challenge on Thursday. (JORDAN KROEGER/Lake City Reporter)
ALACHUA — Despite an early alarm clock, it took another fiery halftime speech from head coach Steve Faulkner for Columbia to finally wake up.
When the Tigers finally did, they did what they were supposed to do — beat an inferior opponent.
Behind 15 points from Zavian Douglas and 13 from Noah Wilson, Columbia rolled in the second half en route to a 65-28 win against South Dade on Thursday on the second day of the Hitchcock’s Classic at Legacy Park. Marlin Haywood added nine points for the Tigers, whose offense was aided by 10 assists from point guard Zamarion Jones.
Columbia (6-5) outscored South Dade (1-7) by 25 in the second half to earn a matchup with either Buchholz or P.K. Yonge on Friday at 11 a.m. in the loser’s bracket. The two teams played most of the first half within single digits until Haywood hit one of his three 3s at the buzzer to send the Tigers into the break ahead 31-19. The Buccaneers scored the first bucket of the third quarter, but Columbia answered with a 13-0 run and led by a big margin the rest of the way.
“I thought it took us a little while to wake up, which is typical of a 9:30 game right now,” Faulkner said. “But one thing I talked to them about is in games like this is when you show who you are. No offense to the other team, they play hard, but I didn’t think they were very good. They looked very young. I felt the first half should’ve been a different game. The second half was more of who we are as far as imposing our will on other teams. In tournaments like this you get a team that you should beat and you play to that level of competition, and I wasn’t happy with that. But I thought the second half was much better.”
The Tigers held the Buccaneers to nine points in the second half and triggered a running clock early in the fourth quarter when Jordan Faulkner hit a 3-pointer for a 62-26 lead. South Dade didn’t have a single player finish in double figures and turned the ball over 20 times, 10 in the second half to help Columbia open up a huge advantage.
Douglas and Wilson each scored five points in the Tigers’ pivotal 22-point third quarter.
“We have to take games like this and still do what we do,” Faulkner said. “We can’t just say oh this team isn’t very good, let’s just get away from what we do. We’re still building for the rest of the season and trying to get better. I think we’re still kind of searching for an identity of who we are and what we want. That’s the thing I talked to them at halftime. I want tough guys that are willing to go out there and fight and fight. No matter who you’re playing, fight and try to win the game. The second half I was much more pleased with. Hopefully we can bring it tomorrow when we play the winner of (Buchholz and P.K. Yonge).”
Shooting was much better for the Tigers, who were held to just 42 points in Wednesday’s loss to Nease. They made 10 3-pointers on Thursday and improved to 6-0 this season when they score at least 50 points.
Haywood hit all three of his 3s in the first half to provide much-needed scoring when Columbia was letting South Dade hang around. Ka’marion Bryant and Wilson each added a pair of 3s, with Bryant’s two makes accounting for all six of his points.
“We took better shots,” Faulkner said. “I don’t tell any of them to don’t shoot it, but it’s when you take the shot. I think the decision to take the shot was better today than yesterday. Obviously, the opponent wasn’t as good today as yesterday, but I saw some good things in the second half so we’ll build off that and hopefully we can do the same thing tomorrow.”
While Haywood’s three first half 3s were big, so was the play of Wilson in the second quarter. Wilson had a stretch where he went coast to coast for a layup and was fouled before hitting a free throw, and he then answered a South Dade bucket with a 3 before making a layup on a long pass from Haywood that put Columbia up 26-15.
“Noah finally showed up a little bit and played a little bit better,” Faulkner said. “We need him. We need him to do what he’s capable of doing for us to be a successful as we can be.”
The goal for Faulkner continues to be getting his guys on the same page offensively at the same time because the potential is there for the Tigers to score 60-plus every game. They did so Thursday and that was with Jones scoring only three points.
It’s an ongoing battle, one Columbia hopes to overcome sooner than later. The Tigers will get an opportunity to put together another solid performance today against a better opponent in either Buchholz or P.K. Yonge.
“In an ideal world where we’re all playing well, we’ve got multiple guys that can score,” Faulkner said. “Z hasn’t scored well in the last few games, but we all know what he can do. It’s just trying to get them all clicking at the same time that’s kind of issue right now. But it’s like I keep telling them — I’d rather be clicking in January. We’ll keep building on the progress and hopefully we can play a little bit better tomorrow than we did today.”