Through three quarters, the Islands High boys basketball team appeared on its way to a double-digit victory as Woodville-Tompkins meandered toward an uninspired home loss on Friday night.
Then the Wolverines woke up, scoring the first 17 points of the fourth quarter to cut into a 20-point deficit and making two huge plays in the last 24 seconds for a stunning 56-55 victory in the SCCPSS Holiday Classic.
“Our biggest thing is when we play with effort, then we’re pretty good,” Woodville-Tompkins third-year coach Travis Priddy said. “For some reason, we were sleepwalking in the first half. Then coaches made some adjustments, went with a little bit of full-court pressure, and that changed the game.”
The Sharks, who had outscored the Wolverines 17-4 in the second quarter and led by as many as 21 in the third, began the fourth with a 51-31 advantage. Priddy asked his players to trim the deficit to a more manageable 10 by the halfway point of the eight-minute final period.
Woodville did better than that as the full-court press created turnovers. Junior guard Zhamir Glover scored two of his 10 fourth-quarter points to close the gap to 51-41 with 6:18 to go in regulation. Senior guard Jesiah Harris followed 27 seconds later with his only basket of the game, a 3-pointer.
Senior Nehmir Gullap became the sixth different Wolverines player to score in the quarter, and Glover closed out the 17-0 run by driving to the hoop for two points and a 51-48 deficit.
DJ Hills (team-high 16 points) momentarily stemmed the tide with Islands’ first points of the quarter on a drive along the left baseline for a 53-48 edge with 4:03 remaining.
Woodville fans, who understandably could have been lulled by Islands’ impressively efficient play through three quarters, joined Sharks fans in raising the electricity of the moment.
Glover, following his coaches’ instructions to aggressively drive to the baseline against Islands’ zone defense for higher-percentage shots, powered inside two more times for four of his game-high 22 points and a one-point gap.
Islands starting center Michael Cooler scored his lone basket of the game, and it was a big one as his layup gave the Sharks a 55-52 lead with 2:22 left.
The Sharks did not score again, though a steal and fast-break layup was erased by a traveling call with 1:13 remaining.
Glover again drove for a layup for 55-54 with 59 seconds left, then Gullap – the team’s big man at 6-foot-5 – tipped in a missed shot with 24 seconds left for the Wolverines’ first lead since 14-12 late in the first quarter.
Down 56-55, Islands called a timeout, and with about 5 seconds left, Glover blocked guard Andrew Harrison’s shot near the right baseline.
What happened after that was unclear, as time ran out and Woodville secured a comeback victory with the 25-4 fourth quarter. Priddy, whose view was obstructed from the far bench, said afterward that he couldn’t see what transpired.
Islands coach Jacob Inness said after the game that he was yelling to his players to foul the Woodville player with the ball to stop the clock with “about 3 or 4 seconds left.”
“It was a just missed communication, a missed call, something in there,” Inness said. “We were telling them to foul. Our player didn’t foul because he thought the player was standing was out of bounds (while holding the ball).”
The Sharks fell to 5-5 with a second consecutive narrow setback after losing a Region 3-3A game at Groves 54-49 in overtime on Tuesday.
“That’s two gut punches in a row, two games in a row this week where we’ve been up, played great 90 percent of the game,” Inness said. “It’s just finishing off that final 10 percent. We’ll get this team over the hump once we can do that.”
Islands was 7-19 (1-12 region) last season, including a 58-44 non-region loss to Woodville-Tompkins almost exactly a year earlier on Dec. 20, 2024, in this event, and played at Beach High.
Those Sharks were “really young, really raw,” Inness said. They returned nearly everyone for this season, showing much improvement with a solid start. The third-year coach reminded his squad in the locker room after Friday’s game.
“We have a really good team,” Inness said in a post-game interview. “We haven’t been in many of these situations before. This has been a group that last year was playing from behind most of the time. So this group is still learning how to play with the lead and how to finish games out. The execution is there.”
For example, the Sharks didn’t turn the ball over in the first quarter while playing the Wolverines (7-3) to a 14-14 tie. Then they took what the Woodville defense gave them in the second quarter, with Harrison and Shakur Washington each sinking two 3-pointers and 6-foot-7 sophomore Jordan Walls making a scoop shot for two second-chance points before showing his outside touch with a deep 3-pointer from the left baseline corner.
Senior point guard Hills drained three of the Sharks’ four baskets from long range in the third quarter, with senior Spencer Shipley (11 game points) making the other, as Islands twice led by 21 points and were up 51-31 with one quarter to go.
“I think at one point early in the third quarter, we were giving up too many threes,” Priddy said. “We weren’t guarding anybody. We pulled all five of them and put another five in.”
“I told the kids at halftime, ‘if you don’t play hard, you’re coming out.’ We’ve got 10 guys that can play,” he continued. “Now it’s trying to find what group works best with each other. We found a group that was kind of working and rode with it.”
Priddy, whose squad is young compared to last season’s roster, said it’s unsustainable to “put yourself in a 20-point hole and expect to come out” like happened Friday.
“It’s a lot different team than it was last year,” Priddy said. “Hopefully, we can continue to get better. Hopefully, when we start getting into (Region 3-A Division I) play, we can make a little bit of a run.”
The Wolverines host Johnson at 5:30 p.m. as the showcase continues Saturday, after Islands faces New Hampstead at 2:30 p.m. at Woodville-Tompkins.
Woodville-Tompkins 56, Islands 55
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final |
| Islands | 14 | 17 | 20 | 4 | 55 |
| Woodville-Tompkins | 14 | 4 | 13 | 25 | 56 |
Islands (55)
D.J. Hills 16, Sh. Washington 6, Jordan Walls 11, Harrison 9, Spencer Shipley 11, Cooler 2.
Woodville-Tompkins (56)
Fludd 2, Nehmir Gullap 10, Harris 3, Lewis 4, Davis 2, Zhamir Glover 22, Smith 2, Solomon Roberts 11.
Records—Islands 5-5; Woodville-Tompkins 7-3.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Woodville-Tompkins 51, Islands 12
The host Wolverines shut out the Sharks 14-0 in the first quarter and kept them in single digits each of the next three quarters to coast to victory on Friday.
Zoe Smalls led Woodville-Tompkins with 13 points as 10 different players scored. Islands scored its first points about 30 seconds into the second quarter on a short jumper by Isabel Connelly, who led the team with seven points.
Islands plays Mount Zion of Jonesboro at 10 a.m. Saturday in the SCCPSS Holiday Classic at Woodville, while the Wolverines host Cross (S.C.) High at 4 p.m.
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final |
| Islands | 0 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 12 |
| Woodville-Tompkins | 14 | 11 | 14 | 12 | 51 |
Islands (12)
Bayan 1, Connelly 7, Edris 3, Fann 1.
Woodville-Tompkins (51)
Knight 8, Freeman 5, White 8, Zoe Smalls 13, Mata 4, Armstrong 4, Washington 3, Giles 2, Walker 2, Gordon 2.
Records—Islands 0-10; Woodville-Tompkins 4-5.
SCCPSS Holiday Classic Basketball Showcase
TODAY'S SCHEDULE
Saturday, December 20
At Beach
Girls
- Liberty County vs. Burke County — 10:00 AM
- Groves vs. Memorial Day — 1:00 PM
- Beach vs. Laney — 4:00 PM
Boys
- Liberty County vs. Burke County — 11:30 AM
- Bolles vs. Keenan — 2:30 PM
- Beach vs. Harlem — 5:30 PM
At Jenkins
Girls
- Johnson vs. Savannah High — 10:00 AM
- Creekside vs. Winter Haven — 1:00 PM
- Jenkins vs. Nova — 4:00 PM
- Benedictine vs. Veterans — 7:00 PM
Boys
- Savannah High vs. Memorial Day — 11:30 AM
- Jenkins vs. Jackson — 2:30 PM
- Groves vs. Veterans — 5:30 PM
- Benedictine vs. Northside Christian — 8:30 PM
At Woodville-Tompkins
Girls
- Islands vs. Mt. Zion — 10:00 AM
- Calvary Day vs. Windsor Forest — 1:00 PM
- Woodville-Tompkins vs. Cross School — 4:00 PM
Boys
- Windsor Forest vs. Mt. Zion — 11:30 AM
- New Hampstead vs. Islands — 2:30 PM
- Woodville-Tompkins vs. Johnson — 5:30 PM
PHOTO CREDIT: lensbyshaunce_
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