This night five years ago was pretty special.
All I kept hearing was that this Gainesville Eastside High School boys basketball team was dominant and had too many ways for Palatka to handle. There's no way that the Panthers would hang with the host Rams and that the Eastside gym would be too intimidating for the Panthers to handle.I found that astounding considering that some of these Panthers like Wesley Roberts, Malik Beauford, Y'dontae Smith and Mitchell McKinnon had gone to two FHSAA Final Fours. No matter where these guys traveled, the crowd was the "least" of their concerns.
So on this Tuesday night, February 26, 2019 -- and after I had eaten at Sonny's BBQ up the road from the school where my waitress was a former Interlachen High girls soccer player -- I had made the short jaunt from there to Eastside High for the Palatka-Eastside game.
The Panthers had all those solid veterans and were 24-4 going into this Region 2-6A semifinal showdown. But the Rams certainly had the homecourt advantage. They were 12-0 at home during the year and were 26-2 overall. They had a gunner who was not afraid to take the ball to the basket in Koren Bradley. They had steady senior guard James Pope and a dominant big guy in forward Emontea Shannon.
If that was not enough, the Rams also had a strong shooting guard-strong forward at 6-foot-4 who was a better football player, but a very good basketball player named Anthony Richardson.
Yes, THAT Anthony Richardson who went on to play quarterback at the University of Florida and is now the projected starting quarterback for the 2024 Indianapolis Colts after recovering from an injury.
He was just another good basketball player on this great Rams team. But Bryant Oxendine, now in his third year as Palatka coach, was not intimidated by this Rams squad at all.
Even as the bleachers was filling up, and before long, fans started to stand up against the wall behind the basket on the gymnasium entrance side.
The teams spent the first half measuring each other out and by the break, Eastside had the 29-26 lead.
But I've seen Palatka teams under Oxendine rally in the third quarter. They got rejuvenated in that third period, but Eastside stuck with the Panthers and held a 47-46 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Then it got interesting.
The Panthers would take the lead, only to see the Rams take it back. Palatka had the ball with 33 seconds to go and Oxendine called a timeout. He set up a play for his point guard, Smith, to find an alley way to the basket, draw a defender to him and dish the ball to an open man underneath OR ... just take the ball himself to the basket to give the Panthers the lead.
But with 33 seconds left, Smith started dribbling to find that opening. There was none. There was no defender leaving his man to pick him up. So Oxendine called another timeout with eight seconds to go and the ball to be inbounded in front of the Panthers' bench on their side of the court.
"We called the play (the first tine), but (Eastside) didn't bite for it. We called another time out and ran a play called 'in-the-quarter' play. We wanted to take the last shot. I told Y'dontae to run the clock all the way down," Oxendine said.
So Smith got the ball in front of the bench. He passed off to McKinnon, Palatka's 6-5 center and tallest player, near the sideline. McKinnon got the ball back to Smith and Smith began to dribble in front of Bradley.
With one quick step, Smith beat Bradley. That drew Shannon from his forward spot in front of Beauford toward Smith. Finally, McKinnon was not in a hurry to head to the basket, so that meant the guy who was covering him was just hanging out until he saw Smith make his move to the basket.
Yup ... Anthony Richarsdon.
Richardson (slightly) and Shannon left the young men they were guarding and Smith had a wide-open Beauford under the basket that he threw a perfect short pass to and Beauford nailed the shot to give Palatka the 61-59 lead with 4.6 seconds left.
Pandemonium among Palatka fans broke out. Eastside legendary coach Herman "Pop" Williams called a timeout.
That's when it got a bit off the rails. The officials had to reset the clock time and Eastside did not have one of those clocks that they can punch in a time and just go from there We had to wait over a minute so the clock would get to where it needed to be.
Under his basket, Bradley threw a pass to Shannon. Shannon raced as fast as he could and just as he was ready to take a shot, he was fouled by Smith.
Yes ... fouled! What the hell was he doing?! Smith would explain later he didn't think Shannon was going to shoot. Seriously?! They are in hurry-up mode and down two points!! How can you NOT see this coming?
But the damage was done and all of us who had made the trek across State Road-20 to Eastside were not out of the woods yet with 1.6 seconds left in regulation. Shannon was two successful free throws away from tying this game again.
Once the ball was handed to Shannon, he took a few dribbles, then put up his shot.
Clang! Off the back iron!
Palatka fans were elated, but the moment was nearly marred by one fan who didn't think about what his actions were going to be like when he stepped out onto the court in celebration.
The whistle blew.
Oh, no!! NOOOOOOOO!! Please, officials ... don't let this game be decided by an enthusiastic kid who didn't know his place at that time. Another officials meeting took place for about 30-45 seconds. I mean ... they were literally thinking about slapping the Panthers with a technical foul.
In the end, the officials chose not to penalize Palatka, much to the chagrin of the Eastside fans. So Shannon got the ball from the official and we ALL KNEW what was going to happen next. Down two and with one free throw left, Shannon was to bang the ball off the rim and then a free-for-all would take place in those last 1.6 seconds. It was inevitable.
Except it didn't happen. Shannon, for some reason, sank the free throw to make it 61-60. OK, so now I'm expecting Mitchell McKinnon to get the ball in to a teammate and that teammate be fouled to send them to the line.
McKinnon got the ball from the official and hit Roberts.
But no one was near Roberts. Suddenly, 1.6 seconds turned into 0.0.
Palatka fans celebrated, then hit the court to hug and celebrate with the players.
Palatka had survived the 61-60 win. It was emotional, and at one point in my interview, I asked the tougher-than-nails Oxendine if he even cried a little afteward.
"Hell, no. We don't cry here!" he answered.
OK, so for much for emotion. Oxendine did say, "We're a good basketball team. I tell these guys everyday just to compete."
And while the elation was there on one end, I ended up with a couple of other reporters, I think one from the Gainesville Sun, interviewing Williams. For all the great the Rams had that year and in the previous ccouple of years, they couldn't conquer the Panthers in three straight postseason games the last three years.
Oh, and Williams was blunt when he said this.
"We don't have the toughness to dig down. They are great kids, but they've got to learn to dig down and play hard. And Palatka started to come up into us. It was a great officiated game. I just think we didn't stand up to the challenge ... the boxing match. If we had stood up to the challenge, I think we would've come out on top."
Getting out of the gym and back in the car, I sped back east on SR-20 to get back to the Daily News building to recount what I had just seen. And what "Pop" Williams said afterward.
It made great sense because in all those postseason losses, Eastside may have had the better record, but it did not have the physical presence to push Palatka around.
And Palatka made more plays than Eastside in the end. I got back to the building by just after 10 p.m., wrote the story after chasing down some spring sports stuff. And got done with plenty of time with everything.
Palatka WAS the better team that night ... not by much, but the Panthers were. Their physical AND mental toughness was better. Unfortunately three nights later, the bid to make it to Lakeland for a THIRD consecutive Final Four was taken away by a better Brooksville Nature Coast High team, especially when Palatka shot 6-for-28 from the field and had to play catch-up most of the second half.
But the Eastside win will always stand out. The Panthers were tested ... they knew they were going to be tested ... and stood up to a really good Eastside team.
A Rams team that was 12-0 at home ... until that game.
These Pathers were unique.
