Dillard boys’ basketball’s offense breaks down against Crestview in state championship
With the way its offense played Friday, Dillard was was maybe fortunate to even survive and make it to the Class 7A championship against Crestview. The Panthers shot just 29.4 percent from the field in an overtime win against Tampa Hillsborough in the 7A semifinals, winning a true slugfest because of its defense and composure in close games.
On Saturday, Dillard’s offensive struggles finally caught up to the Panthers. Dillard shot just 33.3 percent from the field and never led in the second half of a 50-40 loss to the Bulldogs at the RP Funding Center. The Panthers’ quest for an eighth Florida High School Athletic Association championship will have to wait another year.
“That’s what we talked about on the sideline,” coach Darryl Burrows said. “As coaches, we were talking and said, ‘OK, it’s not necessarily our defense. It’s the offense,’ because we weren’t able to put up points and against that team you have to be able to match some scores in there and we didn’t. We really, really, really struggled the first half.”
This run for the postseason for Dillard (21-7) had never been exactly smooth. The Panthers lost in the Class 7A-District 14 championship, leaving them to play on the road for the entirety of the region playoffs. They needed overtime to beat Okeechobee in the quarterfinals, then eked out a five-point win against Boyd Anderson in the semifinals before snapping Doral Academy’s 50-game winning streak in the Class 7A-Region 4 championship.
Somehow, Dillard always figured it out until Saturday.
The first 16 minutes were a mess. Crestview (26-6) shot just 1 of 11 in the first quarter, but led 6-4 because seven Dillard turnovers and five Bulldog offensive rebounds meant the Panthers only even attempted five shots in the opening period.
“They were able to kind of maintain on the boards. I think when I looked at the sheet just a little while ago, as big as we were, we didn’t have that much of an advantage,” Burrows said. “We can’t come out and have turnovers, as big as we are have a team even play equal with us on the glass and then not shoot free throws well.”
Senior frontcourt player Makerere Williams led Dillard with 17 rebounds to go along with 10 points. The rest of the team combined for just 13 rebounds and the Panthers only won the final rebound margin 30-27.
The second quarter was nearly as ugly. Dillard turned the ball over three more times and went into the break down 16-12 by shooting 2 of 7 in the second. Even though Crestview was just 6 of 24, the Bulldogs led because of those extra possessions.
And then the third quarter was just as bad for the Panthers. Dillard started the half by missing four free throws and Crestview opened up with a 5-0 run. The only offense the Panthers could manufacture typically came from Williams’ work on the offensive glass. Dillard scored eight points in the fourth quarter, six of which came from Williams and four of those on second chances.
The forward opened the Panthers’ scoring only after a dunk attempt was blocked, and he was able to gather the rebound and drop in a reverse layup. He beat the buzzer to end the period with a hook shot from the left block, but only after a Dillard three-pointer from the left wing thumped off the left side of the backboard.
Senior point guard Deshawn Bartley is the driving force for the Panthers’ offense and led Dillard with 18 points Friday. On Saturday, Crestview held the senior point guard to just eight points on 2-of-11 shooting.
“They played great help defense. They was like very locked in on me,” Bartley said. “Their coach told me after the game they were really studying me.”
The Panthers finally found some offense in the fourth quarter, only to finally make some late-game mistakes. Dillard’s 20 fourth-quarter points were more than the Panthers managed through the first three and, with three minutes left, they even trimmed the Bulldogs’ lead down to six points. Then it unraveled for good.
Senior guard Jaden Voisin, who scored a game-high 21, answered with an and-one for Crestview, which let Dillard’s frustrations bubble over. Junior post player Jalen Haynes, who finished with 10 points, picked up a technical for his fifth foul of the game. Voisin hit all three free throws for a five-point play, then the Panthers committed a lane violation on a free throw after stealing the ball on the Bulldogs’ extra possession.
Until Saturday, Dillard never had an issue when the game got tight. With a chance to keep Broward County’s perfect run in Lakeland intact and give the county a record fourth state championship, the Panthers weaknesses became too much to overcome.
“It was a grind-it-out kind of game, which we thought it might be,” coach Greg Watson said. “We tried to speed up the pace a little bit.”
