Boys Basketball: Esca-Rosa Challenge concludes with exciting finishes later in day

Day two of the inaugural Esca-Rosa Challenge for boys basketball at Pensacola Catholic High School didn’t disappoint, with some thrilling victories to close out the night.

It was a full Tuesday with another six-game slate, with the only change in teams being that Escambia played on Day One, but West Florida Baptist Academy filled in that slot for Day Two.

As the challenge comes to a close, Milton head coach Joey Nieves – who was part of the organizing group for the event – said now the goal is to expand, but first, they’ll enjoy what they brought in 2023.

“I posted today on Facebook, there’s nothing like playing in front of hometown fans. … It’s great for the city, it’s great for Escambia and Santa Rosa County,” Nieves said after the Milton game, which was the final game on Tuesday. “Hopefully next year we can make it better.”

Pensacola Catholic head coach Mike Dimick noted that it’s something the area will be able to host “for a long time.”

Day One: The Esca-Rosa Challenge highlights the action on opening day

“It’ll only continue to grow. But the atmosphere for the (players), getting them some exposure from college coaches, it’s amazing,” he said. “We’re really happy and excited to see where it goes from here.”

All the other coaches, when asked about the tournament, gave nothing but praise for the event – hoping that it does return. Some added that it helps with scouting other teams early in the season, with a lot of local teams under one roof.

West Florida head coach Phillip Childers added that approximately 75% of the teams featured over the two-day event are on the Jaguars’ schedule this year. “And (other teams) get a look at us – fair is fair,” he added.

L.E.A.D. Academy head coach A.J. Ward and Jay head coach Hank Hullett, both schools that are on the smaller side, said it’s a good opportunity for their teams to play against some larger schools. L.E.A.D. took on Pensacola High and Pace, while Jay went against West Florida and Pensacola High.

“If five years ago you would’ve told me that’s who we play, I would’ve said, ‘Well, who made that schedule?’ Well, I’m the idiot that made the schedule,” Hullett said with a laugh. “I think that we are in a position to benefit from that down the road. That’s what we need. We lost to Chipley (last year), who’s a more athletic team and pressed us, and I tried to make the schedule with that in mind. … That’s to help us grow down the road.”

Here are recaps of all six games from Tuesday.

Pace 56, L.E.A.D. Academy 24

While it took a couple minutes for the Patriots to get going, they took an early 20-2 first-quarter lead and never looked back after that. That included a dunk from Joeseph Skipworth with less than 20 seconds to go.

The Lions weren’t able to muster much as the game went on, scoring just five points in the fourth quarter – capped off by a 3-point shot from Kendrick Williamson.

But what plagued Pace throughout the game was turnovers. Pace head coach Houston Ramsay attributed that to a young team with little varsity experience.

“We have a bunch of guys that have never played the point guard spot before. Trying to throw them out there and make them run it. They’re learning on the fly,” Ramsay said. “We’re going to be a team where we’re just trying to play our best basketball by the end (of the season). Hopefully, we get these turnovers under control by then – because, if not, they’re going to be an issue for the rest of the year.”

However, the Patriots did find some patience throughout the game, waiting for L.E.A.D defenders to jump first before a Patriot would go for an easy layup, especially in the third frame.

“Growing pains are going to be a big part of this year. We’re going to have our ups and downs,” Ramsay said. “We’re going to have our good moments, we’re going to have our bad moments. Hopefully these guys can just learn from the bad ones, and remember what those good ones feel like and try to replicate them as much as we can.”

Spanish Fort (Ala.) 71, Pensacola Catholic 54

The Crusaders didn’t score their first points until 1 minute, 7 seconds left in the opening stanza. Up to that point, Spanish Fort drove up the score 23-2 before a pair of layups from Solomon Sutton with under a minute left to somewhat cut into the deficit.

And with Spanish Fort up big, Pensacola Catholic – which had a respectable second half and keeping pace with Spanish Fort – just couldn’t overcome that early deficit. Dimick noted that “thankfully” giving up those big leads early isn’t the Crusaders’ normal play, but was happy with the later play in the game.

“Against a team like that, that went toe-to-toe with Pine Forest (on Monday) and ended up winning it, you can’t give them a 23-point deficit,” Dimick said. “It’s tough to play from behind.”

Sutton was the driving force for Pensacola Catholic in the second half, finding success all around the court. He finished the contest with 26 points.

West Florida High School 70, West Florida Baptist Academy 31

When Childers was asked about his team’s performance, he showed the scorebook and pointed out one thing: everyone on his team contributed on the scoreboard in the victory. It’s something the Jaguars are looking to utilize with a team that worked a lot in the offseason on getting stronger and faster.

Now, the focus is to get more aggressive on offense and defense.

“Last year, we weren’t aggressive enough,” Childers said. “A lot of people don’t know this, but I told (the players) that I’m going to give out an award at the end-of-the-year banquet for the one that gets the most dunks – that’s one way to make them play more aggressive.”

A few dunks were featured early in the first quarter, with a pair coming from Dominick Nicholson and another from Amir Young. John Anderson also had one in the second frame as the Jaguars posted a 48-19 advantage at halftime.

Then came the alley-oops, while Childers said is West Florida High School’s way “of just having fun” on the court. With some added height on the roster, including Anderson (6-foot-8), Devin Bonner (6-foot-6) and Nicholson (6-foot-5), that’s also aided the rebound game – which put them over, literally, the WFBA squad.

“It’s something that was hard for us to do last year. We’ve been practicing it. … It’s something we’re constantly working on,” Childers said of the alley-oops. “We’re very fortunate to be tall and lengthy.”

Pensacola 61, Jay 44

It was close for the first several minutes of the opening quarter, until Pensacola scored the last 11 points within 3:19 to close out the frame with a 15-6 lead. It was more or less the same heading into halftime.

As Jay went on a small run in the fourth quarter, mainly thanks to some free-throw opportunities and a late technical foul against the Tigers that saw Jay’s Ethan McDonald hit four consecutive free throws, Pensacola held on in the last minutes adding another six points to close out the game.

Pensacola head coach Terence Harris mentioned that now the focus turns to protecting the basketball, avoiding some costly turnovers, especially around half-court.

“We’re a team of guys with 12 new players, and we’ve just got to figure out how to play together. We’ll get better as the season goes along,” Harris said. “Right now, we’re just struggling to find that groove.”

Jay, on the other hand, just got several players back from the Royals’ football team, which extended its season with one game in the playoffs. Now that some players, like Hayden Morris and McDonald, are back on the hardwood, Hullett said the Royals can work together more as a team in practice.

As Jay started to get comfortable in the latter stages of the game, Hullett said the team’s success was “predicated” on making runs into the paint and scoring layups.

“That’s important for us to key in on as we go into practice after the break and playing our games coming forward,” Hullett said.

Booker T. Washington 67, Lighthouse Private Christian Academy 43

The fifth game of Day Two is where things started to get a little interesting. Neither Booker T. nor Lighthouse could separate itself early in the contest, going into halftime tied at 30. The Wildcats found success at the beginning by driving down low – plus a dunk or two with some nice height on the roster – while the Stingrays found success from beyond the arc, especially in the corner.

Booker T. went on a nine-point run to start the second half, which gave it some momentum later on. Plus, Lighthouse started fouling shooters a little bit more, giving the Wildcats plenty of opportunity from the charity stripe.

Seven of the Wildcats’ final nine points came from free throws.

“It’s part of the game. … We knew they were going to try to play aggressive,” Booker T. head coach Dwayne Louis said. “If their intent is to foul, then we’ve got to make our free throws.”

Louis was also pleased with the team-wide play.

“We’re better when all five players are touching the basketball. All five people are a threat to score when they touch it – so if you have a shot, take it. But if you don’t have a shot, let’s go find a wide-open player,” Louis said. “I think we got out of that a little bit in the first half. Then we started to find the open man, and shots started opening up.”

Milton 57, Pine Forest 53

Nothing like ending the two-day tournament with a nail-biter, right?

Similar to how things started in Game 5, the Panthers and Eagles did not separate from each other by more than five points throughout the first half. That was until a 3-pointer from Pine Forest’s Kayden Calderson at the end of the second quarter made the score 24-22.

But that’s when Milton started to pull away a bit in the third quarter, finding success from beyond the arc behind a few different players. The Panthers made four consecutive shots from deep – two from Treymar Jones and one from Peyton Spooneybarger – to appear to put things out of reach.

Pine Forest had an immediate response though with eight unanswered points to get within two of Milton.

The teams started trading points after that, with Milton taking as much as a six-point advantage late, but Pine Forest could just never string enough points together to tie the game. Trailing by just two points with 6.4 seconds, Pine Forest fell after a late foul with 5.1 seconds left – and Milton’s Jones sank both free throws to ice the game.

“We played two preseason games – Gulf Breeze and Pace – and were able to close those out. And then to do it again here, it just shows how much they’ve matured,” Nieves said. “We’ve just got to continue that momentum.”

Pine Forest head coach Ty McCants took the opposite approach, noting that his young team just needs to “be better in crunch time.”

“We had some dumb turnovers, very dumb turnovers,” McCants said. “Yeah, we couldn’t make a shot when we needed one, but we had some dumb turnovers.”

Ben Grieco is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached on X (@BenGriecoSports) and via email at BGrieco@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Basketball: Area teams wrap-up Esca-Rosa Challenge at Pensacola Catholic