Telegraph Staff Writer
Bradford High School saw an 18-point third quarter lead whittled to single digits when visiting Madison County went on an 11-0 run, but the Tornadoes got a big fourth quarter from Shayne Davis, Dae’Jon Shanks and Jontez Williams in defeating the Cowboys 64-54 and winning the Region 3-1A boys basketball championship on Feb. 22.
The Tornadoes (14-10) now advance to the Final Four for the second time in program history. Their only trip before now occurred in 1974.
“It hasn’t hit me yet,” Head Coach Sampson Jackson said. “I’m just excited. Later on, when I wake up in the morning, it’s going to hit me that we’re still practicing.”
The Final Four will be hosted by Lakeland at the RP Funding Center. Bradford will play a semifinal game on Wednesday, March 2, at 8 p.m. against Hawthorne. If the Tornadoes win, they’ll play for the championship on Friday, March 4, at 7 p.m.
“I can’t wait until Lakeland,” said Davis, who finished with 16 points.
Bradford put together a 10-0 run late in the first quarter to go up 17-7. Davis scored off an offensive rebound and was fouled, making the ensuing free throw. Williams then scored off his own steal before Robbie Simmons-Godwin scored off a Shanks assist. Simmons-Godwin was fouled on the play and made the free throw to put the Tornadoes ahead 15-7. Davis then added another field goal.
The Tornadoes had a 13-0 run in the second quarter to build a 19-point lead. Shanks and Davis were each fouled on a successful basket, with both sinking their awarded free throws. Amari Jones scored off an offensive rebound and later hit a turnaround jumper. Williams then knocked down a three-pointer off an inbounds pass to make the score 32-13.
At that point, the game was a far cry from the two regular-season games the teams split — both of which ended with three-point margins.
“We played (tonight) like how we were supposed to in those first two games,” Williams said. “We were supposed to do this.”
It was a 40-22 game early in the third quarter when the Cowboys (16-12) went on an 11-0 run, with six of those points coming on three-pointers by Jonathan Akins.
Jackson said it was a brief stretch in which his team didn’t play well, but the key thing was Bradford never lost the lead.
“We were still up,” Jackson said. “You don’t have to win by 10. You don’t have to win by 15. You have to win by one.
“Basketball is simply a game of runs. They hadn’t made one all game. They put one together in the third quarter. We just had to withstand it.”
Williams, who led Bradford with 18 points, said, “We were going to keep pushing and just keep playing how we play.”
The Tornadoes scored eight straight during a stretch in the fourth quarter in which Madison missed six field-goal attempts. Bradford’s Torin Brazell blocked two shots during that span, which included four points from Shanks. Bradford turned a seven-point lead into one of 15.
Shanks had seven points in the fourth quarter, while Davis and Williams each had six. The Tornadoes needed those points. The Cowboys put together a brief flurry in the final two minutes that saw them score seven straight points, but that only brought them to within 10 points of Bradford.
“At the start of the season, we said we wanted to go to Lakeland,” Jackson said. “We had a rough patch during the season when we stopped saying that, because we had to focus on us and do the things we needed to do.”
That rough patch saw the Tornadoes lose six of nine games. They finished the regular season 10-10.
“The regular season didn’t go how we planned,” Davis said adding, “The key to our success has been we started clicking at the right time. We’re on a six-game winning streak.”
Thanks to that winning streak, the Tornadoes have won not only a district championship, but the second regional championship in program history — 48 years after the first.
“It feels crazy,” Williams said. “We haven’t had one in a long time. We finally got one.”
Shanks finished with 15 points, while Jones had eight. Simmons-Godwin and Brazell added five and two points, respectively.
