CRESTVIEW — A rematch of last year’s boys basketball Region 1-7A semifinal game is on tap Tuesday when Crestview travels to Tallahassee to take on Lincoln.
The Bulldog punched their ticket a second straight Sweet 16 on Thursday with a 58-39 win over Chiles.
Crestview-Chiles boys basketball photos>>>
Bulldog senior forward Damien Lett took a few minutes to enjoy the win Thursday night, but he was already thinking about the next round of the playoffs.
“We’ve worked hard, maybe harder than last year,” he said. “It’s just a great feeling right now.
“We have some of the guys from last year’s team playing with us again this year. We got a little bit of experience and we want to go farther (in the playoffs).”
Crestview (19-9) took control of the game early going on a 13-0 run in the first six minutes of play.
Rusty Moorer, who led the Bulldogs in scoring with 18 points, hit a pair of 3-pointers in the opening salvo. Wesley St. Vil added six points of his own with three baskets.
Crestview led 17-2 at the end of the first quarter and maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way.
The Bulldogs continued to score at will in the second quarter. Moorer added four more points and Dakota Childree buried a couple of 3-pointers for Crestview.
The Timberwolves managed 10 points in the second quarter, but still trailed 33-12 at the half.
Brett Easterling scored seven points in the third quarter to lead a charge by Chiles as the Timberwolves trailed 42-14 at the end of the third quarter.
A basket and one by Lett early in the fourth quarter pushed the Bulldog lead back to 17 points, but Chiles had one last charge.
Kamari Brown scored seven of his 12 points in less than two minutes to pull the Timberwolves to within 10 points of the Bulldogs with 5:24 left in the game.
Moorer accepted the shared blame for letting the Timberwolves back in the game.
“We got too comfortable,” he said. “We forgot we could lose. We had a district hangover (after beating Niceville in overtime Saturday).”
Crestview outscored Chiles 13-4 to close out the game to seal the win and set up another showdown with Lincoln.
Bulldog Coach Greg Watson said there were times his team was caught in a no man’s land of sorts as Crestview tried to put the game away in the second half.
“It’s frustrating because we were kind of in an area where we didn’t want to hold the ball,” he said. “But we didn’t want to take too quick of shot even if you’re open. Sometimes you’ve got to turn down open shots to get a great shot.
It was one of those deals where we kind of in between. But we made some big plays and got some big offensive rebounds and played some good defense in the fourth quarter.”
Email News Bulletin Sports Editor Randy Dickson, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Bulldogs heading back to Sweet 16 (PHOTOS, VIDEO)