Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

SOUTH POINT — All the South Point Pointers needed was to take a deep breath.

The Pointers just had to inhale and exhale to help calm themselves down and they went on to beat the Portsmouth Trojans 66-56 to win the Division 3 sectional tournament on Friday.

“We started out a little nervous and finally settled down,” said Pointers’ coach Travis Wise.

“We guarded and rebounded well. Jordan (Ermalovich) played his best game of the year. If we make free throws late, it goes to 20 (point lead).”

The Pointers will play Eastern Brown at 8:30 p.m. next Saturday in the district semifinals at the Waverly downtown arena.

The nerves were evident at the start of the game and Portsmouth took advantage as Donovan Carr hit a 3-pointer and scored 5 points and Dariyonne Bryant also had a 3-pointer to give the Trojans a 15-9 lead.

Caleb Schneider scored 4 points and Mason Kazee hit a 3-pointer for South Point.

Ermalovich led a second quarter comeback as he scored 10 points including 4-for-4 at the foul line and the Pointers rallied to go up 27-24 at the half.

DeAndre Berry scored 5 of Portsmouth’s 9 points in the quarter including a 3-pointer.

South Point extended the lead to 47-40 in the third quarter as Schneider drained a pair of 3-pointers and scored 8 points and Jake Adams also knocked down two 3-pointers.

Devon Lattimore scored 9 points and Kenny Sanderlin had 7 points to account for all the Portsmouth scoring in the quarter.

The Pointers converted 11-of-18 free throws in the fourth quarter with Kazee making 5-of-8 attempts and Schneider went 4-for-6 as he and Kazee combined for 11 points.

Sanderlin hit a trey as both he and Lattimore scored 6 points in the quarter.

Schneider led the Pointers with 18 points and 3 assists. Kazee had 15 points and 2 steals while Adams scored 10 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.

But Ermalovich had an impressive all-around game with 12 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals.

Lattimore scored a game-high 19 points for the Trojans (11-11) with Sanderlin netting 16.

Portsmouth 15 9 16 16 = 56

South Point 9 18 20 19 = 66

PORTSMOUTH (11-11): Devon Lattimore 9 0 1-2 19, Daewin Spence 0 0 0-0 0, Dariyonne Bryant 2 1 1-1 8, Tyler Duncan 0 0 0-0 0, Kenny Sanderlin 5 1 3-3 16, Donovan Carr 1 1 1-2 6, Levaughn Cobb 0 0 0-0 0, DeAndre Berry 2 1 0-0 7. Totals: 19 4 6-8 56. Fouls: 23. Fouled out: Lattimore, Bryant.

SOUTH POINT (16-8): Caleb Schneider 2 2 8-10 18, Jake Adams 2 2 0-0 10, Elijah Wilburn 0 0 0-0 0, Mason Kazee 3 1 6-10 15, Malik Pegram 2 0 2-2 6, Jordan Ermalovich 4 0 4-4 12, Xander Dornon 2 0 1-4 5 5. Totals: 20-36 21-30 66. 3-pt gols: 5-11. Rebounds: 26 (Adams 8, Ermalovich 6, Dornon 5). Assists: 11 (Ermalovich 5, Schneider 3). Steals: 7 (Ermalovich 4, Kazee 2). Turnovers: 7. Fouls: 13. Fouled out: None.