McGill-Toolen 75, Murphy 72: Rene Scott, Jackets fend off furious Panther rally

Trailing for most of the game, the Murphy Panthers made a frantic second-half run at Class 7A, Area 2 rival McGill-Toolen before a packed house at Murphy on Friday night.

However, the Yellow Jackets knew exactly where to turn when the game was on the line. Seniors Rene Scott and T.J. Howardand junior Larry Rembert all made big shots in the final minutes of the game as McGill-Toolen held off the Panthers 75-72 in the first of two meetings in eight days between the rivals.

They meet again at McGill next Friday.

“Rene and T.J. are guys we have been counting on since the beginning,” McGill coach Phillip Murphy said. “Larry is a guy who has only been with us about three-and-a-half weeks after coming off the football field. He hasn’t been getting a lot of playing time, but he stepped up big for us tonight.”

The Yellow Yackets (17-5, 2-0) led 36-25 at the half and looked to be in firm control with a 48-32 cushion midway through the third quarter.

McGill boys lead Murphy 36-25 at half before a packed house at Murphypic.twitter.com/ICNu3xyF9K

— Ben Thomas (@BenThomasPreps) January 9, 2016

However, Murphy cut the margin to 12, 54-42, at the end of three and opened the fourth with a 13-3 run.

Sheldon Crawford’s bucket with just over five minutes left sliced the Jacket lead to just 57-55. Lawrence Tolbert keyed the run with four second-half 3s. He finished the game with 17 points.

“I saw a group tonight who could have laid down,” Murphy coach Tim Waller said. “Instead, they decided to stand up and fight. We made a few mental mistakes down the stretch. I used too many timeouts early trying to calm our guys down. Still, I was proud of the comeback.”

Murphy’s roster, once one of Mobile’s deepest with 17 players, has been cut to 10 in recent weeks due to injuries and other departures. Waller said he recently called five players up from the junior varsity to add to his team’s depth.

The Panthers took their only lead of the second half (65-64) with 2:27 left when Tolbert was fouled shooting a 3 and hit all three free throws.

“They made some shot,” Murphy said. “24 (Tolbert) hit several in the second half in the deep corner. We played a zone the entire second half. We didn’t change up much at all. We didn’t want to show anything else to be honest with you so we were going to live with it, and they got on that run. They went into the full-court press and it shook us a little, but once we settled and attacked it correctly it kind of balanced the game back out. It was a great game.”

After Tolbert’s free throws, Rembert was fouled on a driving layup and suddenly McGill was back in front, 67-65. Howard followed with another layup, and the lead was back to four. Another Rembert layup and two free throws each by Scott and Howard clinched the victory.

McGill, which will host Fairhope on Tuesday, was led by Scott’s 25 points, Howard’s 21 and Rembert’s 16. Skylar Hawkins joined Tolbert with 17 for Murphy. Neil Farrell and Crawford each had 10. The Panthers (12-7, 0-2) host Foley on Tuesday.

“For us, we basically have three seasons,” Murphy said. “We had 10 games before the football guys got back, 10 games in the middle to try to come together and now we’ve got a 10-game stretch where hopefully we start looking like a basketball team. This week in practice I thought we’ve looked like a basketball team and not just a group thrown together."

McGill also was shorthanded on Friday. The Jackets played without Marlon Williams, who is attending a football combine in Texas. Former Murphy star Kameron Maye (now at Minnesota) and former McGill standout Jason Smith (Auburn) were in the packed Panther gym to watch the game.