The final first round game of the King Cotton Holiday Classic championship bracket quickly got away from Pine Bluff High School.
Faith Family Academy from Dallas defeated the Zebras 96-26 late Saturday at the Pine Bluff Convention Center.
Eight Faith Family players got into the game, and six of them scored in double digits. Wake Forest signee Gallagher Placide led with 21 points. Xavier Young added 19, and Josiah Rose scored 14.
Faith Family started the game on a 13-0 run before Pine Bluff senior Malik Terry made a free throw with 3:33 remaining in the first quarter. The Zebras didn’t score from the field and shot just 1 of 6 from the line in the first. The Eagles made all 6 of their first quarter free throws, all of them on the game-opening 13-0 run.
Pine Bluff (2-9) trailed by as much as 29-1 before Terry scored the Zebras’ first field goal with 6:22 remaining in the second quarter while drawing a foul. He made the free throw and went on to score Pine Bluff’s first six points.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The Eagles led 50-11 at halftime and 80-21 after the third quarter. The fourth was played with a running clock.
Terry and junior Quentin Adams each scored nine points to pace Pine Bluff. No other player had more than two. Adams added six rebounds.
FFA will meet St. Joseph (Santa Maria, Calif.) in the semifinals at 5:30 p.m. Monday. The other semifinal at 7 p.m. will feature Inglewood (Calif.) and St. Michael’s Catholic (Austin, Texas).
Gillion Academy (Va.) 56, Little Rock Hall 46
Little Rock Hall hung around but couldn’t keep up with Gillion Academy (Springfield, Va.) in a Creed showcase division game late Saturday.
Gillion led 15-9 after the first quarter, but Hall kept the deficit steady for the next two quarters. The Warriors never tied nor took the lead but matched the Lions’ point totals in the second and third. Gillion finished strong, outscoring Hall 19-15 in the fourth.
The Lions shot 55.8 percent from the field to Hall’s 34 percent. Senior Aaron McGee led Gillion with 16 points, while sophomore Aaron Bryant and Florida State signee Marcis Ponder scored 12 apiece.
Senior forward Tristian Jahnke led Hall with 13 points, followed by senior Micah Moore with 11.
