It was a special night on Friday night at Eastside High School.
Herman “Pop” Williams, who is in his 28th season as head coach of the boys basketball team, had the gymnasium named after him prior to the Rams’ home game against city rival Buchholz.
Tim Shankle, a former point guard for the Rams who helped lead Eastside to the Class 5A state title in 2006, was one of many former players who were there in his honor.
But in front of a standing-room-only and overflowing crowd, the host Rams came up short in a 44-38 loss to the Bobcats.
Buchholz boys basketball coach Elliot Harris was scheduled to miss the game due to serving the third of a three-game suspension for being ejected during a game on Dec. 10, but he appealed with the FHSAA and they reduced it to two games.
“I am grateful for that because I need to be there for my guys, and I’ll be better for that moving forward,” he said.
It seemed fitting that Harris would be there for the ceremony and the game.
“Pop was coaching when I was in high school,” Harris said. “He’s been a really close friend. When I first got a head coaching job at Santa Fe (Alachua), he was one of the first people to call me and congratulate me. He’s a friend, but somewhat of a mentor, and I’m happy for him and I’m glad that Eastside was able to do this for him tonight.”
The Bobcats (5-3) raced out to a 7-0 lead on a 3-pointer by senior point guard Peyton Warring with 4:28 to play in the opening quarter.
They extended it to a 15-2 advantage on a 3-ball from the right wing by junior Matthew Johnson.
“Just watching film against GHS [a 78-51 loss at home on Dec. 13] we got a lot of shots, but we played very slow and we didn’t push the pace, and that was one thing I wanted to emphasize, I wanted us to play fast,” Harris said. “Just play fast and attack.”
Junior Lucas Bhatia, who had a game-high 13 points, knocked down another 3-pointer, Buchholz’s fourth of the half, for a 22-6 lead with 1:14 to play in the half.
The Rams only scored eight points [four in each quarter] in one half of play and trailed 24-8 at the half.
It seemed as if Buchholz might run away with it when Bhatia’s 3-pointer from the left wing gave the Bobcats their largest lead at 27-8 just nine seconds into the third quarter.
But Eastside didn’t give up.
After scoring just eight points the entire half, the Rams scored 15 points in the third quarter, including freshman Laquan Prunty’s banked-in 3-pointer at the buzzer to get within 15 at 38-23.
The Rams (1-7) went on a 5-0 run, highlighted by a 3-pointer by another freshman, Jermaine Gladdin, to get within 10 at 38-28 with 5:32 remaining.
“We played well at the end of the third going into the fourth, we kind of woke up a little bit,” Williams said. “I just think the kids were a little nervous at the beginning. We weren’t concentrating on what we should be doing and then we got into a rhythm…I think at the end we played pretty good.”
Eastside was without starting point guard Bryan Hayes due to illness. That contributed to a slow start offensively.
But they finished fast thanks to Gladdin, who scored eight points off the bench in the fourth quarter.
“Freshman kid,” Williams said. “Those guys get up and down. They’ve got to learn to keep that poise, but they’re young. He really sparked us.”
Eastside would get as close as four at 42-38 on a layup by Prunty with 25 seconds to play, but two seconds later Warring made both free throws to help close the door.
“I was pleased with them to come back, and how they played, I was really pleased,” Williams said. “We’ve just got to build on that. Buchholz is a good ball club. They make you move. You can’t stand around, so it was all good.”
Buchholz will host The Villages at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, while Eastside, which started a freshman, two sophomores and two juniors, is back in action next Friday during former Gator Dan Cross’ tournament.
Eastside will play The Rock in the Florida Get Down Gainesville Showcase at Santa Fe College.
“This was a learning experience for them and it’s on a college court,” Williams said. “Hopefully we’ll have a better showing but they’re young.”
