King's 37 lifts Bristol into finale

The Panthers scored a 64-50 win over Sebring and are one win from the state tournament.
By BRIAN RICHESSON
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
CANTON -- One step from state.
John King took it upon himself to put the Bristol High basketball team into the Division IV regional final.
A 5-foot-11 senior, King poured in a career-high 37 points Tuesday, leading the Panthers to a 64-50 victory over Sebring at Memorial Fieldhouse.
"King absolutely carried them," Sebring coach Brian Clark said. "If you ask me, he should be the MVP in all of Div. IV after tonight's performance."
King, who scored 22 points in the first half, sank three consecutive 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to quell a Sebring rally and move Bristol into Friday's 7:30 p.m. final against Strasburg-Franklin, a 46-34 winner over Dalton.
"We rode whoever had the hot hand. That was me," King said. "I was just feeling it, and my teammates kept giving me the ball.
"As soon as you hit that first one, you just get that feeling as a shooter," he said. "I just kept shooting and shooting."
Taking turns: Interestingly, King's performance followed that of junior teammate Craig Giesy, whose 37 points in the district title game propelled Bristol past Windham and into the regional.
The 6-3 Giesy scored just five points Tuesday but grabbed 19 rebounds.
"We're really not just King and Giesy," Bristol coach Scott Groves claimed. "We can go nine and 10 deep when we have to."
As true as that may be, the performances of King and Giesy possibly have given Bristol (23-1) enough fuel to reach its first state tournament since the 1993-94 season.
"I'm just glad that it came at a big time," King said of Tuesday's output. "I'm even shocked at myself. Some of my teammates were saying, 'He's pulling up from the cheap seats.' "
King, the Northeast Inland District player of the year, made 10 3-pointers along the way.
"Geez," King said when he learned of his totals. "I just kept shooting."
Probably the biggest shots King made Tuesday came midway through the fourth quarter. Sebring (20-4) had cut an 18-point deficit to seven with 4 minutes, 30 seconds remaining.
"I know as a senior that my job is being a leader," King said. "When the team struggles, I need to step up and make big shots."
With Bristol mired in a field goal drought of more than five minutes -- "guys started to think the game was over," King said -- he pulled up from behind the 3-point arc to end all doubt.
King made three straight perimeter shots within two minutes to extend the Panthers' lead to 60-44 with 2:30 remaining.
"That's John King for you right there," Groves said of his clutch performer.
Clark said, "That was the game."
Foul trouble: Sebring, which was plagued by foul trouble, was led by junior Greg VanKirk with 18 points. Junior Josh Dean added 17 for the Trojans, who lose just one senior to graduation.
"Joe Springer is the first senior to walk off this [regional] floor in 10 years," Clark said. "I'd like to think that we're restoring the tradition at Sebring."
richesson@vindy.com