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Robinson's 24 Points Leads Sebring Past Braden River

Brian Gjurgevich/Highlands Today

Sebring’s T.J. Williams goes strong to the hoop against Braden River’s Mike Romer on Friday.

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By Brian Gjurgevich | Highlands Today

Published: December 9, 2007

SEBRING — In practice, when Sam Robinson works on his running teardrop floater, he makes sure everyone knows whose style he's emulating.

"He works on that shot all the time," said Sebring coach Princeton Harris. "All he says is 'Tony Parker! Tony Parker!'

"I don't really like it, but you can't take it away from the kid, because he's perfected it."

Behind the floater and 24 points, Robinson spurred Sebring to a 56-45 victory over Braden River on Friday night in a crucial Class 4A-District 10 meeting at SHS.

With one game left before winter break, the Streaks (3-4) are hardly in panic mode, but after a 23-point loss on Thursday night at DeSoto, getting back on the winning track was paramount.

"We didn't play well at all [Thursday] night," Robinson said. "But we came out strong tonight and got a win we needed."

Junior Chris Grubb added 10 points and senior T.J. Williams chipped in six points and a game-high seven rebounds, including five boards off the offensive glass. Williams said the victory was all about putting pressure on the Pirates (3-4) and playing together as a unit.

"One team, one heart," he said. "If we play together, we win together — it's as simple as that."

Simple is hardly how Braden River would describe the opening moments of the game, as Sebring went to its full-court press and forced the Pirates into a frenzied pace. After jumping out to a 13-9 lead after one quarter, both teams traded jabs until Grubb made a steal and took the ball to the hole for a lay-up and 26-24 Blue-Streak lead at the half.

"That's the gameplan for us every night," Harris said. "We try to get quick points and switch things up to cause confusion with their offensive flow. It effected them, because we switched between man and zone and they never knew what we were going to come back into.

"We want to make the offense adjust to what we want them to do."

The Streaks closed out the third quarter on a 6-0 run capped off by a Williams offensive rebound and putback to put Sebring up 38-31 after three. They'd go up by as many as 11 in the fourth, and despite 14 points from Braden River's Mike Egloff and 11 points from Marc McKoan, Sebring held strong against a flurry of 3-point attempts.

"We were doing some things inside tonight, and our shots seemed to fall from the outside," Harris said. "This team is a running team. We're up-tempo with the guys we have, but we have to get them to understand that we can push the ball, but there are times where we have to back off and run our offensive set."

Natanael Orozco added seven points for the Streaks, while sixth-man Glen Patton added four points, Javier Medina nabbed five steals and Robert "Jewell" Campbell grabbed five rebounds.

The Streaks have one game next week, but it's a big one: They head to Palmetto for a 7:30 p.m. showdown on Tuesday.

"This win put us in good shape," Robinson said. "Now we need to go to Palmetto, do the same things and get a big win."

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