ST. PETERSBURG \u2014 For any basketball player, the dream is to hit the last-second shot.<\/p>\n
The clock winding down, all eyes watching as you dribble toward the basket. You make a move, pull up and release \u2026<\/p>\n
That’s the chance Boca Ciega’s Anthony Brown had at the Sun Bash Tampa powered by The Hoop Vibe at Northside Christian on Jan. 2.<\/p>\n
Boca Ciega trailed Tampa Prep 73-71 with 10 seconds left but had the ball. Brown, a junior who already had made three 3-point shots earlier, could have ended it with another.<\/p>\n
Instead, he and Keshawn Andrews worked a two-man game to perfection. On a play called “45,” Brown got the ball at the free throw line. Andrews screened Brown’s defender before rolling toward the basket. Brown delivered a perfect pass, which Andrews turned into a layup with 1.1 seconds left.<\/p>\n
Tie game, 73-73.<\/p>\n
Tampa Prep beat Boca Ciega 81-76 in overtime, but Brown’s unselfishness made an impression with teammates, coaches, opponents and tournament officials.<\/p>\n
After the day’s action, Brown earned Player of the Day honors, receiving a trophy for his performance.<\/p>\n
College recruiters have noticed, too.<\/p>\n
“That’s one of the things this player does so well,” Boca Ciega coach Marquel Cason said. “That’s why Tulsa coaches are interested in him. They talked about his ability to get the ball in teammates’ hands. He really understands the strengths of each teammate and uses that to put them in positions to be successful.”<\/p>\n
Cason said Brown has shown unselfishness since he first met him in sixth grade, a big reason he transferred from East Lake two years ago. While Georgia also has shown interest, Brown said he’ll be patient. Playing with One Family in AAU competition this summer will expose him to college coaches around the country.<\/p>\n
“I’m not looking at a specific place,” he said. “Whatever college is the best fit for me is where I’ll go.”<\/p>\n
Brown said he would have taken the shot if open, but feeding his teammate was the better choice.<\/p>\n
“You can’t just force that \u2013 that’s all heart,” he said. “To be unselfish, you’ve got to be willing to pass the ball. I feel that’s heart and trust.<\/p>\n
“I’ll do whatever I have to do to help us win, especially getting the ball to a teammate.”<\/p>\n
With 31 points in the Jan. 2 game, Brown wasn’t shy about shooting. Besides a strong long-range and midrange game, the 6-foot-5, 215-pounder showed explosive bursts to the basket with three dunks. On the season, he leads the team in points (18.4), rebounds (6.1), assists (3.0), steals (2.1) and blocks (1.0).<\/p>\n
Cason said while the Pirates are off to a rough start, they’ve played tough competition. A 71-70 win over tournament host Northside Christian and the overtime loss are signs they could finish the season strong.<\/p>\n
“I like where we’re headed,” he said. “When we really get down and play defense and communicate, we can be really good.”<\/p>\n
Cason added a key will be his top player being more assertive offensively.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes, he’s too unselfish,” Cason said. “We want to get him going at the beginning, but he always wants to get everyone else going first.”<\/p>\n
Quick hits<\/p>\n
Black commits to Alabama<\/p>\n
Northside Christian senior Eliana Black has committed to run cross country and track at the University of Alabama.<\/p>\n
Black capped her high school career by winning the Class 1A state cross country championship Nov. 9 in 17 minutes, 50 seconds \u2014 18 seconds ahead of the field. She became the third runner in school history to claim a state title.<\/p>\n
The transfer from Cambridge Christian, where she won state in 2022, also helped lead Northside to a 12th-place team finish, the program’s best showing since 2011.<\/p>\n
Boys basketball stat leaders<\/p>\n
Here are the statistical standouts among Pinellas County boys basketball players. The list was compiled from MaxPreps.<\/p>\n
Scoring<\/p>\n
28.4 -Grant Cook, Keswick Christian<\/p>\n
22.4 – Nijuan Harris, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n
20.2 – George Montgomery, Hollins<\/p>\n
19.2 – Anthony Brown, Boca Ciega<\/p>\n
19.2 – Jordan Bryant, East Lake<\/p>\n
Rebounds<\/p>\n
14.1 – Aiden Dyals, Osceola<\/p>\n
10.5 – Mike Broxton, Gibbs<\/p>\n
10.4 – Tremayne Singletary, Lakewood<\/p>\n
10.1 – Jordan Bryant, East Lake<\/p>\n
9.4 – Pierce Adkins, Dunedin<\/p>\n
Girls basketball stat leaders<\/p>\n
Here are the statistical standouts among Pinellas County girls basketball players. The list was compiled from MaxPreps.<\/p>\n
Scoring<\/p>\n
19.2 – Jy\u2019aira Washington, Northeast<\/p>\n
17.6 – Summer Morgan, Hollins<\/p>\n
17.1 – Emme Dalhoff, CCC<\/p>\n
16.2 – Savanna Wall, East Lake<\/p>\n
16.2 – Summer Shaw, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n
Rebounds<\/p>\n
11.5 – Kinsley Spoor, SPC<\/p>\n
9.8 – Summer Shaw, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n
9.3 – Kinsley Yoder, IRC<\/p>\n
9.2 – Kennedy Brooks, Dunedin<\/p>\n
9.0 – Angel L\u2019eon, Keswick Christian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG \u2014 For any basketball player, the dream is to hit the last-second shot. The clock winding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[34059,3745,906,596,110,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-123861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-boca-ciega","9":"tag-high-school-sports","10":"tag-northside-christian","11":"tag-pinellas-county","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-st-pete","14":"tag-st-pete-headlines","15":"tag-st-pete-news","16":"tag-st-petersburg","17":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","18":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}