By BY BRUCE HIXON – sports editor
A lack of guard depth hurt W.S. Neal on one end. Escambia County guard Frank Taylor hurt the Blue Eagles on the other end.
Taylor wore down the W.S. Neal defense from start to finish, as he fired in 31 points to pace the Blue Devils to an 81-43 win at East Brewton Monday.
W.S. Neal (0-4) only had two available guards for the game, Jimmy Wilson and Javoni Mickens. The lack of depth and Taylor's hot hand quickly became too much to overcome.
The Blue Devils (3-1) drained 10 three-pointers in the game. Surprisingly for such a high individual output, only one of those came from Taylor. Taylor got most of his through penetration and in transition.
Escambia County needed most of Taylor's 11 first quarter points to open up a narrow lead. The Blue Eagles took an 8-7 lead on a steal and layup by Mickens four and a half minutes into the contest. Escambia County closed out the period on a 9-2 run on a field goal by Sean Knight and three field goals by Taylor. Taylor's last hoop, which was his lone three-pointer, beat the first quarter buzzer and gave the Blue Devils a 16-10 lead.
A three-pointer by Knight and a layup off a steal by Taylor in the first minute of the second quarter gave Escambia County a 21-10 lead. The Blue Devils maintained a double-digit advantage the rest of the way.
The lead hit a 20-point bulge of 35-15 later in the quarter on a bucket by James Webster and reached a first half high of 43-19 when Webster beat the halftime buzzer with a three-pointer.
Escambia County's lead reached 30 points less than two minutes into the third quarter when a layup by Taylor made it 53-23. It topped 40 points later in the quarter when a three-pointer by Earl Parifoy made it 72-31.
Despite the big lead and a running clock, Taylor remained in the game in the fourth quarter. His steal and layup with seven minutes left gave the Blue Devils their biggest lead of the game at 76-33.
W.S. Neal's junior varsity fell to 2-2 on the season after a 39-17 loss to Escambia County. Jeremy Alexander led the Blue Eagles with seven points.
W.S. Neal, which hosted Frisco City Tuesday, heads to Northview, Fla. next Monday.
At W.S. Neal
Escambia Co. 16 27 29 9 - 81
W.S. Neal 10 9 14 10 - 43
ESCAMBIA COUNTY (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Taylor 13-1-2-31; Webster 5-3-2-21; Knight 2-4-0-16; Watson 1-1-0-5; Parifoy 0-1-0-3; Cylnes 1-0-0-2; Jefferson 1-0-0-2; Riley 0-0-1-1 (Totals: 23-10-5-81)
W.S. NEAL (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Wilson 3-1-1-10; Payne 3-0-3-9; Nicholson 3-1-0-9; Mickens 3-0-2-8; Sanders 2-0-1-5; Travis 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 15-2-7-43)
Junior varsity
Escambia Co. 16 4 15 4 - 39
W.S. Neal 4 5 4 4 - 17
W.S. NEAL (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Alexander 3-0-1-7; Floyd 2-0-0-4; Elliott 1-0-2-4; Bailey 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 7-0-3-17)