OCALA – On Tuesday night at Vanguard High School in Ocala, the Alachua County boys’ basketball All-Stars cruised to a 120-99 win against Marion County’s best in the 2017 North Central Florida All-Star Game.
Five players scored in double figures for Alachua County, which made 16 3-pointers in the game. Alachua County stretched a one-point first quarter lead (27-26) into a 57-49 lead at the half. But in the second half, Alachua County used a 31-19 run to pull away.
Alachua County was led by Gainesville’s Isaiah Wilson, who scored a game-high 20 points. Wilson, who is considering football at Valdosta State, scored seven in the second quarter and seven in the final quarter to edge Vanguard’s Devontae Bynes, who scored 18 for Marion County.
Santa Fe’s Joseph McCray hit four of Alachua County’s 3-pointers and finished with 14, followed by Hawthorne’s DJ Harris (13), Buchholz’s Austin Mowry (12) and Santa Fe’s Marquez Carter (10). A total of six players finished with six points or more.
Bynes, who helped lead the Knights to their first state semifinal appearance since 1982, kept Marion County in it early with four shots behind the arc in the opening quarter. All of his points came on long-range shots.
He made some big shots over the course of the season. In the MCIAC County Tournament, Bynes made a Vanguard record 10 3-pointers in the tournament semifinals vs. Dunnellon and finished the game with 36 points.
Teammate Quez Clayton was next with 16 points.
Clayton, who finished just under 1,500 points for his career at Vanguard, scored 10 of his points in the final quarter to finish just ahead of another teammate, Phil Ortiz, as Marion County’s top four scorers were all from Vanguard.
Ortiz, who missed most of the season with a broken tibia, finished with 15 points, all from 3-point range.
The Knights’ Jowarn Mitchell rounded out the double-digit scoring with 10 points.
