Ususual starting lineup brings energy, victory for St. Pauls at West Bladen

Jan. 21—BLADENBORO — Corey Thompson wanted to try something different, and when his St. Pauls boys basketball team took the floor Thursday he sent out an unusual unit at tipoff.

Jeyvian Tatum, Josh Henderson, Marcus Galbreath, Cameron Revels and Elston Powell, usually starters, began the game on the bench. The Bulldogs' normal second unit of Lukus Osborne, Shaun Emanuel, Kenneth Jones, Kemarion Baldwin and Houston Hunt started and played the first five minutes.

It worked — St. Pauls built an early lead with that second unit on the floor, then got big nights from Henderson, Revels and Tatum in a 64-45 win at West Bladen.

"Just to try to start the game off with a little more energy and effort, which I thought we did," Thompson said. "Those guys did a good job as far as setting the tone and getting the game going; I thought they did very well. It was something different to try and mix and match."

Hunt opened the scoring for St. Pauls (8-5, 3-0 Southeastern Athletic Conference) before two baskets by Emanuel and one by Osborne gave the Bulldogs an 8-2 lead. At that point, five minutes into the game, Thompson inserted his usual starting five.

"Subbing five in, five out, that's not my style, but at that moment that's what I felt like we needed to do, just to kind of get some momentum and get some guys going," Thompson said.

Malachi Allen and Gary Parker each hit 3-pointers for West Bladen (8-8, 1-4 Southeastern) to tie the game at 8-8 just after the Bulldogs' normal starters appeared; momentum turned back to St. Pauls with a Galbreath basket and two layups by Henderson, giving the Bulldogs a 14-10 lead at the end of the quarter.

"It's all the same to me, it doesn't matter if I start or not," Henderson said. "We just come and play the game the way we need to play, where we can get the dub."

The Bulldogs expanded on that run, scoring eight of the first 10 points of the second quarter including four points by Tatum, to take a 22-12 lead; the margin hovered between seven and 10 points over the rest of the half and St. Pauls led 27-20 at intermission. Thompson inserted the second unit back into the game at about the four-minute mark before mixing and matching for the rest of the half.

After a triple by Allen and a jumper by Hezikiah Adams, West Bladen closed to a 34-29 score with 3:49 left in the third; St. Pauls answered by ending the quarter on a 10-2 run in which five different Bulldogs scored, and the Bulldogs led 44-31 going to the fourth.

"To be able to make runs like that — that's why I tell them boys, when we get down like that, don't fold, because I know we're capable of coming back and putting the game away," Henderson said.

A 6-2 spurt in the first 1:17 of the fourth pulled West Bladen back within nine at 46-37; St. Pauls answered again by outscoring the Knights 18-8 the rest of the way. Henderson had six points in the period and Tatum and Emanuel each had four.

"I just thought that we were a little bit more disciplined on defense," Thompson said. "Those guys are going to score, they've got some good young players and they made some shots. I thought our guys were more disciplined and stayed to the assignment and did what they're supposed to do. You're not going to stop a team, you just hope to contain them."

Henderson scored 16 points to lead St. Pauls; six layups and four free throws accounted for the senior's scoring as he frequently drove to the rim, often drawing contact.

"If you don't get the foul you've just got to play through it," Henderson said. "You just play the game, continue through it and do what you need to do."

Revels scored 14 points, Tatum had 12 and Emanuel added eight for St. Pauls.

Parker led West Bladen with 12 points, Allen had 10 and Adams scored eight.

St. Pauls returns to action Wednesday at home against Midway.

Chris Stiles can be reached at 910-816-1977 or by email at [email protected]n.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @StilesOnSports.