Steve Carter Photo/Special to the Gila Herald: The Fort Thomas Apaches defeated the Joseph City Wildcats 51-48 on Wednesday night in the first round of the 1a Boys State playoffs. The Fort will travel to face No. 2 St. David on Saturday.
Will travel to face No. 2 St. David on Saturday
By Jon Johnson
FORT THOMAS – After trailing for most of the game, the No. 7 Fort Thomas Apaches pulled up their drawstrings and pulled out a 51-46 opening-round victory over the No. 10 Joseph City Wildcats on Wednesday in Fort Thomas.
The Apaches will now travel to face the No. 2 St. David Tigers on Saturday, Feb. 11, starting at 7 p.m. Get tickets by Go Fan here.
St. David reached the quarterfinals by defeating No. 15 Desert Heights Prep.
Fort Thomas 51 – Joseph City 48
The game was close throughout as the teams battled ferociously.
The Apaches had pretty balanced scoring with outside threat Channing Wilson leading the way with 11 after connecting on three 3-pointers. Freshman phenom Damare Dosela was his usual, steady self, handling the rock and trying to get his teammates good looks while attacking the basket for 10 points on the night.
Jashawn Rambler exuded his usual intimidating presence and scored 9; Michael Stanley pitched in 8; Justin Olivar finished with 5; Tyler Black had 4; Allen Gilbert had 3, and Carmelo Robertson had 1.
Dosela and Wilson both nailed deep balls in the final period as Dosela went for 7 points in the final stanza when The Fort needed it the most and hit his foul shots down the stretch to put the game away.
Joseph City also featured a balanced offensive attack, led by Jareon Miller with 11, followed by Bannon Johnstun and Bridger Fields with 9 points each; Cort Miller had 7; Blake Palmer had 6, and Nehemiah Balda had 2 (and 2 points were unassigned in the scorebook).
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