Hartselle Senior Seth Garner. | Caleb Suggs

Hartselle erases 15-point deficit only to lose at buzzer

Caleb Suggs

Hartselle Enquirer

To say the Hartselle Tigers were coming off an emotional win was an understatement. The Tigers had just defeated rival Athens Golden Eagles in triple overtime last Tuesday December 13^th and they scored 101 points in the process. The celebration had to be short lived though as the Tigers made a trip to Columbia high school three days later to take on the Eagles in an ultra important area game.

The Eagles opened the game on a fire as they reeled off a 7-0 to start Trace Hill cut it to 7-3 but the Eagles extended to 13-3, ending the run with a monster dunk. Seth Garner cut the lead down to 13-5 at the end of the first quarter.

The Eagles kept it going in the second quarter as they used a 6-2 run to take a 19-7 lead. Kyle Eddy hit back to back three pointers and Garner hit a basket to trim the lead to 19-15 as it looked like the Tigers were going to make a comeback. However, Columbia ended the first half by going on a 6-0 run in the last minute and a half to take a 26-15 lead into the break.

Hartselle just couldn’t get any momentum it seemed like as the Eagles started the second half on another run, this time 7-3 to make the lead 33-18. However, the tigers managed to get on a run themselves, which was fueled by an Isaac Taylor three pointer, and cut the lead to 35-27 at halftime.

A 6-2 run by the Tigers to start the final period cut the score down to 37-33, but the Eagles extended the lead back to 44-33. Still, the Tigers managed to get in close again at 46-41 thanks to six free throws from Hill and Eric Stephenson along with a bucket from Garner. Taylor then came away with a steal and hit Hill for an open three pointer to trim the lead to 46-44 with just over a minute left. Hartselle tied the game at 46, thanks to a basket from Garner, with five seconds left and the game was seemingly headed to overtime. However, the Eagles raced down the court and hit a buzzer beating three pointer to win the game 49-46. With the loss the Tigers fell to 6-4 on the season and 1-2 in area play.

Trace Hill and Seth Garner led the Tigers with 12 points. Kyle Eddy had 8 points and Isaac Taylor and Eric Stephenson both had 7 points.