The Portal boys couldn’t finish the season sweep against Woodville-Tompkins Friday night, falling to the Grizzlies 50-38 at home.
    The Panthers may have had a shot at the sweep if it weren’t for a bad second quarter effort. Only trailing 14-13 at the beginning of the quarter thanks to a driving lay-up by Devonte Brown, Woodville-Tompkins would hit a 6-0 run off four free throws and a transition three-pointer off a Panther turnover.
    Now down 20-13, Portal got a bucket in the paint from Wyee Williams to stop the bleeding but it’d be the last point for Portal in the first half. From the 4:58 mark onward, Portal would be outscored 13-0 off a 4-for-6 shooting effort by Woodville-Tompkins.
    “Tonight was a combination of not taking care of the ball and not beating double teams,” said head coach Jeff Brannen. “The defense was okay, but we couldn’t score.”
    However Portal would respond in the third quarter with a 7-2 run of their own, spurred on by a opening quarter three-pointer by Timmy Williams. Now down 35-22, the two sides would trade buckets going to the end of the quarter to see Portal trail 40-29 going into the final eight minutes.
    “We dug ourselves a hole and we spent a lot of energy trying to get out of it,” Brannen said. “They held the ball well and we had to defend aggressive, leading to some easy baskets.”
    Ronald Williams would score off a transition pass following a steal by Brown to open the quarter, then two possessions later Tyvaccea Heard hit a jumper off a pass from Devante White. Portal had cut the lead to eight points before Charleston Willingham answered with a floater in the lane.
    Portal would force a turnover on the other end which led to a Timmy Williams lay-in, cutting the lead back to eight with 4:54 left on the clock. However Portal’s next three possessions would all end in turnovers, allowing for six more Grizzly points to finally close the game for good.
    Despite only giving up one more personal foul than Woodville-Tompkins (11 to 10), Portal only had six free throw attempts -- none of which were converted. Meanwhile Woodville-Tompkins had 14 attempts at the line and would sink 10.
    “When you’re limited on yours shots on top of the other team making the easy baksets it’s simply a bad combination,” Brannen said.
    Ronald Williams and Connor Washington were the only players who scored double-digits for Portal with 12 and ten points respectively. Williams would add seven rebounds as well.
    Portal (9-6, 5-3) will travel to Bryan County (2-12, 0-8) Saturday to cap their week at 7:30 p.m.

Portal girls fall
    Portal fell to the sweep against Woodville-Tompkins, with the Grizzlies winning their away stand 54-10.
    Turnovers, lack of offensive continuity and a general inability to break Woodville-Tompkins’ press doomed Portal from the opening whistle. As a matter of fact it took seven and a half minutes from the opening tip for Portal to get a point on the board.
    “We do the right things in practice, they’re just not translating,” said assistant coach Cliff Hubbard. “We know what press they’re running and we run the right break and we just can’t execute.”
    Down 11-0 with 48 seconds left in the first quarter, Portal finally scored a basket courtesy of a Arieanna Wiggins lay-in under the basket off a nice feed from Claudasia Mosley. It was only one of the five shots Portal would take in the quarter, as their other 14 possessions would end in turnovers -- 10 of them forced steals by Woodville-Tompkins.
    Portal would follow up their two-point first quarter performance with a scoreless second, as they couldn’t even get a shot up during the first four and a half minutes of the quarter. Portal would miss all five of their second quarter shots, while turning the ball over another 15 times.
    “There’s no drill to overcoming adversity,” Hubbard said. “You want to have to do these things. If you see things going bad you have to keep executing.”
    All the while Woodville-Tompkins scored 28 of their 34 first half points off those turnovers, the Grizzlies also grabbed 14 offensive rebounds off their own misses to convert into 13 points.
    In the second half Portal saw a little more light on offense, getting two third quarter buckets from Kolbie Motes to end the 13:01 scoring drought that started back in the first quarter then followed by a putback by Keely Thomas off one of her one misses.
    “It’s a confidence thing,” Hubbard said, “I mistake compounds into another and things snowball from there. Just like our confidence can break that way, our confidence can build that way too by stringing shots together.”
    This put the score 43-6 going into the fourth quarter, which was shortened to six minutes due to the large gap between the teams. Kanina Spells hit a rare three-pointer off an inbounds assist from Shannon McDaneils at the 2:26 mark, then to cap Portal’s scoring for the night Akeyla Leysath hit a free throw with less then 30 second left.
    Even while they cut their second half turnovers from 29 to 12 and held Woodville Tompkins to 20 points, it wasn’t enough to overcome the overwhelming first half. Thomas would add nine rebounds to her two points, while Dashonda Morgan and Motes each had two steals.
    Portal (3-12, 2-10) will take a break from region play Saturday to face Bryan County (11-3, 6-2) on the road at 6 p.m.