Lady Tigers bounce back against Russellville, boys fall

By Staff
Brewer sweeps Priceville; Lady Blue Devils fall in overtime
Justin Schuver and Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
The Lady Tigers bounced back from their first loss in 10 games with a dominating 67-36 victory at home Jan. 17 against Russellville. Hartselle led 34-16 at halftime and opened the second half with a 13-0 run en route to the 31-point victory.
With the win, Hartselle set up a battle for the area title with Athens last Friday at Hartselle. The Tigers knocked off Athens to take the regular season area championship.
Lauren Drake led the way for Hartselle (17-5, 5-0 in Area 16 play) with 15 points and also added seven rebounds. Shan Jones had 13 points and eight rebounds.
Lauren Dye came off the bench and had a productive night after starter Mary Virginia Reeves got in early foul trouble. Dye, who started for the Lady Tigers last season after Jones injured her ACL in December 2004, finished with 13 points.
Russellville's Jordan Dollar had 19 points to lead the visitors.
Russellville boys 54
Hartselle boys 49
Hartselle's Johnny Jones' three-pointer with 9.4 seconds left just grazed off the back iron and Russellville's Rodney Suggs hit two late free throws to help the Golden Tigers take the victory.
The Tigers, who defeated Russellville on the road 49-43 Jan. 6, led 22-16 with 3:48 remaining in the second quarter before consecutive three-pointers gave Russellville its first lead of the game. The Golden Tigers would not relinquish the lead the rest of the night.
"Over there (at Russellville), we got pretty much every rebound and could get the ball inside any time we wanted to," Hartselle coach Johnny Berry said. "Tonight, they got a lot of offensive rebounds and we didn't execute very well on offense. They forced us to take a lot of outside shots and that's not really our game."
Perhaps no missed rebound was more important than one that came late in the fourth quarter. Hartselle's Justin Billings nailed a three-pointer with 32.5 seconds remaining to cut Russellville's lead to 51-49.
The Tigers then fouled Caleb Mitchell, who went to the free-throw line to attempt a one-and-one. Mitchell missed the free throw, but Suggs managed to grab the offensive rebound and was fouled immediately afterwards.
He hit one of the two free throws, giving Russellville a three-point lead with 22.7 seconds remaining and forcing the Tigers to shoot a three-pointer to tie.
"I still thought we had a chance late in the game when we cut it to two and they missed the free throw," Berry said. "But again, we didn't rebound and Suggs is a really good athlete and he was able to jump up and grab the rebound over us. That put us in a bad spot. Moo-Moo (Jones) had a good look there at the end and it just didn't go down for us."
Jackson Holmes had 16 points to lead Hartselle (2-19, 1-4). Suggs led the way for Russellville with 15 points.
Westminster girls 54
Falkville girls 48 (OT)
The Lady Blue Devils led by 10 going into the fourth quarter before the Lady Wildcats rallied to send the game into overtime. From there, Westminster rode its momentum to victory.
Emily Dabbs scored 18 points to lead Falkville (11-6, 3-4). Mandy Loman's 17 points led the way for Westminster.
Brewer boys 64
Priceville boys 46
Brewer's Patriots (12-10) grabbed an early lead and went on to defeat Priceville's Bulldogs, 64-46, in a road game Jan. 17.
The Pats were up 18-14 after one period, 36-28 at halftime and 50-39 after three quarters.
The Bulldogs trailed by as many at 13 points in the second period but managed to pull to within six at intermission thanks to a last second three-point basket by Josh Bedwell. They trailed by eight when Bedwell took a bad fall underneath his own basket and injured his head with 1:31 left in the game. While he sat on the bench nursing his injury with an ice pack the Patriots put together a 7-2 run to clinch the win.
"It a tough situation for us to play them because we're a bigger school and we're expected to win," Brewer head coach Sam Brown said. "I thought our guys handled it well. Everytime they made a run we were able to answer with a run of our own."
"But you have to give (Priceville) a lot of credit. They played hard and did a good job of rebounding even though our players are taller."
Matt Nielsen paced Brewer's offense with 25 points. Rusty Boyd added 13.
Alex Cannon led Priceville (13-8) with 21 points. Bedwell followed with 18 points.
Brewer girls 76
Priceville girls 43
Brewer's Lady Patriots (13-9) were never threatened as they cruised to a 76-43 win over Priceville's Lady Bulldogs (14-8) on the road Jan. 17.
The Lady Patriots were ahead 19-11 after one period, 44-18 at halftime and 60-22 after three periods.
"We stressed using our speed and running the floor and it worked," Lady Patriots head coach Ricky Allen said. "Our girls did as super job."
All nine of Brewer's players saw action and all scored. Andrea Crawford led the way with 19 points.
She was followed by Meagan Hormel with 13, Nichole Hayes, 12, Michelle Tillman, eight, Christen Slate, seven, Ashley West and Genie Browning, four each and Heather Childers and Britney Kent, three each.
The top scorer for Priceville was Jessi Smith with 13 points.