Franklin County downs St. Joe for district title
If you didn’t stay for the second half, you would have thought Saturday night’s district championship in Eastpoint would have gone the other way.
The Port St. Joe Lady Tiger Sharks led more of the entire first half, amassing a 25-19 lead at the intermission against the Franklin County Lady Seahawks.
But a strong second half, led by aggressive play by senior Greggreyauna Griffin, sophomore Sa’ryia McNair and junior Thamia Thomas, made all the difference, as the 13-6 Lady Seahawks took home a 44-39 win.
With about eight minutes left, Franklin County tied it up at 32-all. Griffin’s trey with 4 minutes left gave the Lady Seahawks a 38-32 lead. St. Joe came back with a trey but after fierce play underneath, Griffin hit a second three-pointer and with time running out Franklin County had a 42-37 lead.
Each team could only hit half of their free throw opportunities the rest of the way, Griffin would foul out with about two minutes left to play, and the crowd would erupt in cheers when the buzzer sounded and coach Jordan McNair had his first district title in three years.
“We’re a second half team, I knew we were going to come out and play,” said McNair. “We’ve been like that all year. We just had to make adjustments at half time and I knew what they would do in the second half.
“It was a team effort from the coaching staff to every player on the team,” he said.
Franklin County now hosts the 7-11 Malone Lady Tigers on Feb. 13.
Sa’ryiah McNair led the Lady Seahawks with 18 points, followed by Griffin with 12 and Thomas with five. Freshman Aubrey Nowling, sophomore Jayla Creamer and senior Kendra O’Neal each scored three.
Port St. Joe was led in scoring by sophomore Jayla Hill with 14, with 10 by eighth grader KK McNair, eight from junior Ellie Newman, four from senior Addy Silcox, two from senior Brooklyn Bishop and one from junior Nijay Quinn.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.