Columbia coach Steve Faulkner sat down on the bench at halftime.
He didn't even go into the locker room. In fact, he didn't move again until the game was over.
Even in a 20-point win, Faulkner was extremely frustrated with the Tigers' performance, one he labeled “horrendous” and “terrible.”
Columbia overcame a sloppy effort on the offensive end of the floor, which included 19 turnovers, to pull away from Madison County for a 58-38 win in the Tigers' Den on Friday night behind Terrance Tolbert's double-double of 15 points and 17 rebounds. But the game was much closer than it should've been against a two-win opponent, with the Tigers (9-7) only leading the Cowboys (2-7) by seven entering the fourth quarter.
It took the reserves alongside Tolbert to finally push the lead out comfortably, but it wasn’t enough to cool Faulkner's anger after the game.
“We were freaking terrible, absolutely freaking terrible,” Faulkner said. “I told my son at halftime I thought we should refund people who came.”
Columbia only led Madison 25-20 at halftime after turning it over 10 times in the first half. A slow start let the Cowboys hang around as the Tigers only had six points until late in the first quarter before taking an 11-8 advantage into the second.
The start was so poor that Faulkner quickly pulled the starters Shaheed White, Kadrian Wilson, Gavin Broomfield, Mikel Morgan and Tolbert for his reserves. Some of that group returned in the second quarter, but Columbia still only managed to take a 25-20 lead into halftime as Braxton Blesy kept Madison in it with seven of his team-high 14 points while Kemonte Lee had six of his 10 points in the first half.
The performance was disappointing to watch for Faulkner, who says he was encouraged by Thursday’s 54-47 loss to Class 5A No. 6 Ponte Vedra. The Tigers played PVHS toe to toe, leading by a point entering the fourth quarter before coming up short.
“The effort was freaking horrendous and terrible,” Faulkner said. “It’s one of those things where although we lose (Thursday) night, we played really well for the most part. I told them before the game that 80% of the game we were fantastic. Then we come in tonight and we get caught up in the society we’re in nowadays where everything is out and you can see Madison is having a rough season and not very good so we go into the game and don’t take them very seriously and it’s a nip-and-tuck game at halftime because we just don’t take people seriously. We don’t care. Overall, as a group they don’t care.”
Faulkner went back to the starters in the third quarter, but they never saw the floor in the fourth outside of Tolbert. The group of White, Wilson, Broomfield and Morgan only combined for 11 points, and White was the only one to score two points in the third quarter as Columbia lollygagged to the fourth up 38-31.
The reserves, though, provided the much-needed effort Faulkner was looking for in the fourth. The trio of Ty’avious Cooper, Murkail Cray and Jordaeton Youmans combined for 13 points in the fourth quarter while Zaeon Jones and Harold Moore provided the energy defensively to help turn the Cowboys over nine times in the final period.
Cooper finished with nine points and seven rebounds, while Youmans and Cray both ended the night with eight points.
“The guys that aren’t playing that much in the bigger games played their tails off tonight,” Faulkner said. “I told them during the first timeout, to the guys that don’t play much, ‘prove me wrong. Give me a reason to play you. Well, some of them will get some chances tomorrow.”
Cray, who was a starter the first half of the season, made his return after missing the last eight games due to a fracture in his wrist. He returned much to Faulkner’s delight, calling him one of the few bright spots from Friday’s win.
“He was great,” Faulkner said. “I thought the more he played the more he got into it. I turned to (assistant coach) Mardell (Jackson) midway through the fourth quarter and said, ‘the one good thing about tonight is that it’s nice to see Murkail Cray on the floor again.’”
So what’s Faulkner’s solution to his team’s inconsistency? An early wakeup call to start. He’s called a morning practice Saturday ahead of the Tigers’ 7:30 p.m. matchup against Class Rural No. 6 Williston (10-4).
Needless to say, Faulkner expects a much better effort when the Red Devils roll into the Tigers’ Den.
“I’m going to get my message across one way or another,” Faulkner said. “I promise you I will get their attention tomorrow.”