By REID TUCKER
Paxton and Chipley, two schools separated by a mere 60-odd miles of interstate driving, clashed seven hours away in Lakeland with the Class A state basketball championship on the line.
The Tigers’ eventual, convincing 65-38 win meant the program’s third state title in five years and their second in a row. It was heartrending enough for the Bobcats, who went into the game 25-3, to suffer a final scoring difference of that magnitude to a team they were beating – however narrowly – at halftime, but the loss was made even more tragic for them. This was the first Final Four tournament a Paxton team had participated in since 1974 and the first title game since ‘62, and hopes were high that Paxton’s starting five would be able to neutralize the impact of Chipley’s ace in the hole, Florida State signee Trent Forrest.
It didn’t work out that way on the fated evening of Feb. 24.
Zach Varnum and Grant Stewart, the biggest playmakers of the Paxton squad, both had colds. Garrett Bodie was playing injured, with two badly sprained ankles limiting his ability to get up and down the floor. Even had his whole team been healthy, Paxton head coach Jeff Bradley admitted it would have been a tall order to stop Chipley this year, and he was proud of his players for all their achievements in the 2015-2016 season.
“Winning a state championship is what every coach and every player dreams of; it’s what I dreamed of for 18 years,” he said. “What we achieved was incredible. The opportunity to play for a championship is something most coaches go their whole career never experiencing, so I can honestly say that this is the first time in all those years when I was happy with getting second place.”
Varnum matched Forrest, the 10th best high school prospect in the country, with 12 points in the first half and had nary a foul at the intermission, but Varnum and Stewart, Paxton’s two best scorers this season, were utterly shut out by Chipley’s defense in the second half. Varnum went 5-for-17 from the floor, scoring 16 points altogether, and Stewart was just 2-for-11 for a total of five points. That just wasn’t enough, as long-range shooters Bodie and Jack Hamilton were held to five and nine points, respectively, while Chipley’s offense proved too fast for Paxton’s oft-unsung but capable defensive linchpin, Woodrow Myles.
Things went mostly according to Paxton’s plan in the first half, as Bodie cut Chipley’s lead to six points with a timely 3-pointer at the end of the first quarter in a critical play that turned the tide in the ‘Cats’ favor. Chipley was still in the lead 21-15 going into Q2, but Stewart and Hamilton returned fire with a pair of 3s to boost Paxton ahead for the first time as 3:47 showed on the clock. Chipley turned a little cold and Forrest actually looked tired as the half drug on, but he finished with a 3 of his own to shave Paxton’s growing advantage to a 28-26 halftime lead.
Forrest simply could not be stopped after the break as he ran up 14 of his game-high 26 points, though credit is due to Paxton’s defensive effort that the future Seminole was held three points down from his per-game scoring average in the 2015-2016 season. As good as Forrest was, he only led the way to Chipley’s victory, whereas it was the tremendous late-game performances from Adrian Sims and Justin Campbell that really closed the deal. The outside shooting specialists seemed unable to err as they poured in 3-pointers in the second half, giving Chipley the bracing up it needed to away from a 28-26 Paxton lead at halftime to mount an 11-point lead of their own by the end of the third quarter.
From there on out the Tigers never looked back and Paxton couldn’t hang on, as the Bobcats’ turned chilly and got colder, their shooting percentage falling precipitously in the fourth quarter. In fact, Paxton was only 2-for-20 in field goals in the whole second half. Meanwhile, Forrest was setting off fireworks with three huge dunks, and Sims and Campbell had momentous returns on their investments near and beyond the arch – Sims scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half and Campbell eight of his 12.
Chipley was ahead 61-37 with 1:36 remaining in the game, and it was then that Bradley elected to pull his starters, all of whom embraced their coach tearfully on the sidelines. The Tigers subsequently had the run of the floor, and despite their efforts to stall and run out the clock, they still managed to score another four points before the final buzzer. As impressive as their win turned out and as duly proud as they had every right to be, the relative handful of Tigers’ fans in attendance had their exultations drowned out by the looming silence of the nearly 500 Paxton devotees who made the trip to Lakeland.
That level of support, more than anything, is a testament to the commitment the small north Walton County community has for its student-athletes, Bradly said. He knew that whatever happened in Lakeland, he and his players would have the backing of the whole town. Over the course of his nearly two decades as head coach – and especially after the moving reception the Bobcats received when they won the regional title over Malone – Bradley learned to expect nothing less from the dedicated Paxton home crowd.
“I’ve never felt the way I did after that game,” Bradley said. “To see our fans and those boys so ecstatic made me realize how close-knit everything is here in Paxton and how important this basketball program is to our people. It is very humbling to be the one the Lord allowed to be a part of this.”
