St. James boys gut out win over Georgetown

Monty Carr had every reason to smile.

And the St. James boys basketball coach didn’t mind flashing a grin or two Friday night.

After all, Carr had just watched his team execute down the stretch as his Sharks took a hard-fought 47-41 win over Georgetown to boost their morale heading into the thick of the Region VII-AAA slate.

“It’s confidence. If you can actually get a comfortable margin in a game like this and in the conference we play in, you’re going to smile and enjoy it,” said Carr, whose team moves to 1-1 in region play. “Coach [Alvin] Walker does a great job with his guys and he told me they’re not very good at shooting free throws and they came in and knocked down, I think, 60 percent of their free throws tonight, which kept them in the game. Of course, he always has a team that plays tough and gritty and that’s what they did. They banged, they rebounded, they scratched and we were fortunate enough to stick with them.”

St. James and the Bulldogs battled back-and-forth for much of the game, and the Sharks entered the fourth quarter with just a one-point advantage.

Georgetown took a 33-31 lead on a Cavonte Gamble field goal just two minutes into the fourth quarter. However, Zach Werba hit a big 3-pointer to put St. James back up by 1 with a little over five minutes to play – and the Sharks never looked back.

The Bulldogs did get within 1 in the final 30 seconds, but Jackson Hurston and Trey Myers each hit a pair of free throws to put the game away.

“Those types of games can go either way and we’re just really fortunate it came out in our favor,” Hurston said. “This home crowd really helped us and big free throws at the end did, too. … It was a well-coached, good team win. If we play together, that’s what happens.”

Werba scored a team-high 13 points and hit three 3-pointers, Myers scored eight point, and Hurston finished with seven to pace St. James, which will travel to take on Myrtle Beach at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“It feels great getting our first region win under our belt. No more pressure on us, really,” Hurston said. “We’re feeling pretty confident now and we just need to focus on Myrtle Beach the following Tuesday.”

Carr knows every game in Region VII-AAA will be a battle and expects nothing less when the Sharks take on the Seahawks.

“Every region game is big. Sitting in the region we play in, after two games, half the teams are losing and half the teams are winning,” he said. “This puts us right back in the middle of the mix, and we’ll see how other teams shake down to see where we sit at. But it’s still early in region play. We just want to keep having positive outings and keep things positive.”

Gamble put up a game-high 18 points, and Julius Logan chipped in seven for Georgetown, which falls to 0-2 in region play. The Bulldogs will look to right the ship as they travel to play North Myrtle Beach on Tuesday.

This story was originally published January 16, 2016 at 12:22 AM with the headline "St. James boys gut out win over Georgetown."