Unlike their meeting two weeks ago, round two between Columbia and Oakleaf was much closer.
But two ongoing issues reared their head again for the Tigers — turnovers and missed free throws. That allowed the Knights to escape the Tigers’ Den with a season sweep.
Daniel Huffman scored 15 to go with six steals and five assists, Jelani Wright finished with 13 points and four steals, and Amauri Butler-Bailey came of the bench to add 13 points to help Oakleaf rally in the fourth quarter for a 60-56 win over Columbia. The Knights outscored the Tigers by five in the final period, finishing the game on a 12-5 run to grab their fifth straight win.
It was a stark contrast from when the teams met on Nov. 22 when Oakleaf (5-1) won 77-55. But despite playing much better on Friday, Columbia (2-3) couldn’t pull out a win due to 16 turnovers and 14 missed free throws.
The Tigers finished 4 of 18 from the foul line, just a few days after missing 13 of 22 free throws in a 50-41 loss to Gainesville.
“I think you take those two things out, we played more than well enough to win the game,” Columbia coach Steve Faulkner said. “I thought in a lot of aspects of the game we were drastically better than we were Tuesday, but when you get 14 free throws that you’re just giving away, you’re giving points away. And then with some of the turnovers, I expect us to be a high-turnover team — 12, 15 — but that’s not when we’re playing against a zone. We got zoned a lot in this game and there was just bad decision making. At the end day, I told them there were a couple I had the same angle that they did when they made the pass and it wasn’t open.”
Point guard Zamarion Jones led Columbia with 16 points, including eight in the third quarter to help his squad erase an 8-point deficit, and stuffed the stat sheet with six rebounds, five assists and three steals. Forward Jalen Gaskins added 11 points to go with eight rebounds and two blocks while forward Zavian Douglas also finished with 11 points for the Tigers, who led 45-44 at the end of the third quarter after being down 27-24 at halftime and then 32-24 early in the third.
Jones banked in a floater to to give Columbia a 49-48 lead midway through through the fourth quarter and Murkail Cray, who finished with nine points, pushed the lead to three with a basket before Oakleaf made its decisive run. Back-to-back buckets from Wright and Dan Footman put the Knights up one, and while the Tigers retook the lead a final time on a layup from Gaskins, Amauri Butler-Bailey quickly answered with a 3-pointer to make it 55-53 to set up a crucial turnover with under two minutes to go.
That’s when Jones threw away the inbounds pass on the baseline to Wright, who quickly fed Tyler Owens for two of his six points to put Oakleaf up 57-53. Faulkner was hoping to run a set to pull away one of Oakleaf’s big men from the basket, but his guys ran to the corners trying to occupy the outside instead, leaving Jones without an open man.
“I got to educate him and give him the right call in that scenario,” Faulkner said.
After Gaskins had a 1-for-2 trip at the foul line to cut the deficit to three, Jones grabbed the offensive rebound but the Tigers turned it over again only for the Knights to then get called for a back court violation with 44.8 seconds remaining. Faulkner then drew up a play in timeout to get guard Tucker Floyd an open look for a 3-pointer, but when it wasn’t there, Floyd drove to the basket and missed a floater that rattled in and out.
“I told them if they took that away (the 3-pointer), get to the basket because I knew they had four team fouls and we’d be going to the line,” Faulkner said. “It just went in and out. I felt like we had four or five of those tonight that just kind of went in and out. We missed a couple of bunnies at the rim in the fourth quarter, so sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce our way.”
Another crucial mistake would soon follow. Oakleaf called timeout and Floyd was then called for an intentional foul away from the ball prior to the inbounds pass. Floyd appeared to lock arms with Owens but when Floyd turned to unlock, his arms got wrapped around Owens’ neck, prompting the officials to call the foul.
Owens proceeded to knock down both free throws to put the Knights up 59-54 with 16.8 seconds left
“I told the official I think he’s hooking him and he said, ‘coach, he may have but I saw his arm around his neck.’ It’s hard to argue that,” Faulkner said.
The Tigers still had a chance though. Cray drove to the basket and got fouled on a made layup with 9.5 seconds left, but he missed the free throw to keep Oakleaf’s lead at 59-56.
Needing just a free throw to ice the game, Wright made the first to get the Knights out of Lake City with a win.
“It’s almost like we’re right there,” Faulkner said. “I think we saw glimpses in this game of how good we can be and ‘spurtability,’ but just making it consistent is an issue right now.”
The Tigers will give it another shot Saturday when they travel to face The Rock (3-2) for the second time this season after winning the first meeting 70-59 on Nov. 19. They’ll then return home to face Buchholz (3-0) on Tuesday.