Sardis wins tournament with tiebreaker
By Staff
Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
PRICEVILLE — Danville’s Hawks and the Sardis Lions both finished with 2-1 records in the Priceville High School Boy’s Thanksgiving Basketball Tournament, but the Lions claimed the tournament trophy by allowing fewer points than Danville in its loss. Falkville’s Blue Devils finished third with a 1-2 record and Priceville came in last with a 0-3 mark.
In the tournament finals on Saturday, Sardis bombed the host Bulldogs 75-46 and Danville edged Falkville 53-51.
Sardis got off to a fast start and was never threatened by the Bulldogs. The Lions were ahead 20-6 after one period, 42-19 at the half and 63-30 after three quarters.
Trent Wallace paced the win with 30 points. Daniel Hinton followed with 20 points and Adam Amos scored six points and had eight rebounds, 12 steals and 13 assists.
Kristian Barker paced the Bulldogs with 13 points. Brock Boyd, Kody Smith and Jamie Jones scored eight, seven and six points, respectively.
The Lions (3-2) made 34 of their 42 first half points from shots taken in the low post and were able to dominate the boards on both ends of the court. The Bulldogs, on the other hand, had a hard time scoring even when they were able to get good looks at the basket from close range.
We had struggled some in earlier games both in our post play and 3-point shooting,” said Sardis head coach Tracy Cheek, “but we were able to reverse that trend today. “We have nine seniors and three juniors on the squad. I thought they played well today. I have high expectation for them the rest of the season.”
The game between Danville and Falkville wasn’t decided until late in the fourth quarter, and the outcome served as a measure of revenge for the Hawks who lost to the Blue Devils by two points earlier in the season.
Danville managed to pull ahead in the second period after trailing 7-8 at the end of the first period. They were up 20-14 at halftime and 34-20 after three quarters.
But the Blue Devils came on strong in the final period, outscoring the Hawks by 12 points. They pulled to within three points of tying the score with nine seconds left and knocked down a 3-pointer with less than a second left to pull to within two points of tie with less than a second left. The Hawks hung on to win by making nine of 12 free throw attempts in the last two minutes of the game.
Russell Standridge paced the Hawks in scoring with 14 points. Roger Smith followed with 12 points.
Jack Randolph and Joseph Lacey each knocked down 14 points for Falkville while Steven Lindsey added 13 points.
