Bears take down the Demons in Ozark

OZARK — With Saturday’s game at the Dothan Progress/Dothan Eagle/Southern Star Holiday Prep Classic hanging in the balance, Brandon Ellis stepped up big for Robertsdale.

The junior delivered two clutch plays in the final 1:21, lifting the Bears to a 56-52 win over the McIntosh Demons at the Holiday Prep Classic presented by The Cochran Firm.

With the win, Class 5A Robertsdale (9-7) advanced to play in Monday’s second round. McIntosh, ranked eighth in the state in Class 1A, dropped to 8-3.

The outcome gave Robertsdale first-year head coach Marshall Davis Jr. a victory over his alma mater and over long time friend, Warren Roberts, McIntosh’s head coach.

The two played at McIntosh in the late 1990s with Roberts graduating in 1997 and Davis two years later.

“We are trying to get our program to where they are at,” said Robertsdale’s Davis, referring to McIntosh’s status as state power. “They were missing three-four key players and I was missing four players also, but we just battled.

“My guys played well. At first, we had stage fright as we had never played in a gym (Ozark Civic Center) like this. You could tell McIntosh had been in gym like this. They kept their composure.”

Ellis, a 6-foot-3 forward, had the composure at the end during an action-packed fourth quarter.

Tied at 36 going into the period, the teams delivered a back-and-forth final eight minutes.

Robertsdale had a four-point lead four times, the last at 49-45, but McIntosh came back and wrestled the lead away on jumper in the lane by Jerome Haley and a 3-pointer from the left corner by Everette Horn.

The trey, which came after a nice pass from down low from G’Juan Land, made it 50-49 with 1:28 left.

Robertsdale’s Malik Dailey was fouled seven seconds later. He missed both free throws, but Ellis delivered his first key play in the late stretch.

Ellis sliced by a Demon player to grab the offensive rebound after the second miss and stuck back up and in to put the Bears in front.

McIntosh then misfired on two shots, one a 3-pointer, and Kent Langham grabbed the rebound for Robertsdale.

Langham passed off to Quenton Evans, who pushed it up the floor and was fouled with 45.8 seconds left.

Evans missed the first throw, but made the second for a 52-50 lead.

Ellis then delivered his second big play.

McIntosh tried to pass it inside, but Ellis deflected it and recovered it in the open floor. He then preceded down court for a two-hand slam with 27 seconds left, making it 54-50 Bears.

“He is our leading scorer on the season and he really stepped up right there at the end,” Davis said of Ellis, who finished with a team-high 16 points.

McIntosh missed on three straight 3-pointers before a layup by Haley with 1.5 seconds left cut it to two.

Dionta Banks sealed it up for Robertsdale with two free throws with 0.1 second left.

In addition to Ellis’ 16 points, Evans had 14 points and Banks 12 for Robertsdale.

Horn led McIntosh with 16 points and Cortez Thomas and Haley had 10 points each.

“We just lost the game,” McIntosh’s Roberts said. “Robertsdale played well and played better.

“I was missing two starters, but we still should have won that game. We missed tip shots and missed free throws that we should have been made.

“Our guys didn’t play as aggressive as they usually do. Defensively, we left guys wide open for shots and we didn’t get a hand up on a couple of those. You do stuff like that, it is hard to win.”

McIntosh seized a 6-0 lead four minutes in and led 12-6 at the quarter break.

The Bears began growling in the second quarter, scoring 10 straight to take a 16-12 lead.

From there, the margin never got higher than four the rest of the way.