By PATRICK CASEY
Varsity high school basketball season is off to a strong start at Freeport High School as both the boys and girls squads have won their first three games of the 2014-15 season.
Coach David Felix, in his second season as the head coach of boys basketball, saw his team capture home wins over Bozeman, Ponce de Leon and South Walton during the first four days of the regular season.
The Bulldogs defeated Bozeman 64-61 in overtime in front of the student body on Nov. 17 as sophomore Mason Hall scored 27 points with teammate Dillon Bates adding 12 in the victory.
The Bulldogs hosted long-time Area 5 foe Ponce de Leon on Tuesday night in a game that saw the Pirates jump out on top 29-20 at halftime as Crete Zorn and Dalton Thames provided key three-point shots to help the visiting team build a lead.
Freeport hit only 7-of-23 shots from the field in the first half but began to claw back into the contest as their pressure defense forced 12 turnovers in the next two quarters. Ryder Newman and Dillon Bates added a pair of baskets in the third quarter and Mason Hall scored 10 points in the second half to key a rally that would see regulation come to a close with a 48-all score.
Neither squad could pull away from the other in the first overtime as each side scored five points for a 53-all tie after four minutes of extra time.
The Pirates jumped out to a 60-57 lead in the second overtime as senior Zach Johnson scored five of his 15 points on the night early in the extra frame only to see Hall knot the contest at 60-all with a three-point shot moments later. Freeport would score the final eight points of the game to grab a 65-60 decision as Noahh Cole chipped in a basket from the field while guard Kelvic Thompson made 5-of-8 free throws in the second overtime to grab another home victory.
Hall finished with 28 points in the game while Bates and Thompson scored 11 each with Newman adding 10. The Bulldogs canned 19-of-31 free throws in the game and forced 19 turnovers from the Pirates to earn the win.
Thames finished with 20 points for the Pirates with Ryan Singletary scoring 11 and Zorn 10 as Ponce de Leon fell to 1-1 overall in a non-district contest. The Pirates scored only six points in the fourth quarter and went 0-for-3 from the free throw line to help the Bulldogs come-from-behind win.
The Bulldogs closed out their first week with a 68-51 victory over South Walton on Thursday night.
Freeport led 17-9 after the first quarter and 35-22 at halftime as their defense held the Seahawks to 8-of-27 shooting from the field in the first 16 minutes of competition.
Hall had 11 first half points with Thompson adding nine of his own.
The Bulldogs pushed the lead to 58-37 after three quarters as Hall lived at the free throw line, making 7-of-10 shots from there during the quarter, with Newman and Bates providing baskets on the inside to increase the lead.
South Walton trimmed the lead in the fourth quarter as Stephen Stroop canned a pair of long distance shots but the deficit was too large as the Bulldogs earned a 68-51 win.
Hall finished with 25 points as eight different Bulldogs scored in the game. The winning margin could have been larger but the host squad hit only 14-of-32 shots from the charity stripe though they were 25-of-57 from the field.
Stroop led the Seahawks with 15 points with Ross Martin adding 11. The Seahawks made only 17-of-58 shots from the field and 7-of-14 from the free throw line.
The Freeport girls earned a 67-56 win over South Walton as Megan O’Neal scored 38 points with her sister, Katie, scoring 23. The two players scored 61 points, outscoring the Seahawks on their own and bombing away from outside with 13 made shots from behind the arc as the home team nailed 15-of-35 shots from the floor in the opening half of play.
South Walton hung around for most of the contest but could not work the deficit into single digits though Savanah Hiers scored 17 points, mostly in the paint, with teammate Francette Warren adding 13 of her own.
Team Notes: PDL and Freeport have split the last 44 boys basketball meetings at the varsity level with the Bulldogs winning three straight against the Pirates. PDL boys coach Brad Alford is in his third season and holds a record of 14-35 at the school after the Pirates dropped a 75-71 home decision to Laurel Hill on Thursday night. The Freeport boys are 3-0 for the first time since they won their first four games to start the 2010-11 season under David Burke. Freeport girls coach Mike Myrick is in his 16th season and holds a record of 159-227 in that time. Katie O’Neal scored her 1,000th career point with 499 coming at Freeport. The South Walton girls are 18-7 against Freeport since 2003-04. The Freeport boys are 19-2 versus South Walton and have never lost in the regular season at home (12-0) to the Seahawks.
