Patriot games

By Staff
Brewer wins three in Big Blue Classic
Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
FLORETTE - The hottest team in the Big Blue Classic Saturday night was the Brewer Patriots.
Cody Lanford was the biggest igniter for Brewer. He scored a team-high 17 points in the championship game as Brewer beat Hartselle 59-50 to claim the tournament championship.
Lanford scored 12 points in the fourth quarter as the Patriots erased a six-point deficit to beat the Tigers in front of a large home crowd.
Brewer won three games in in three days to clinch the tournament championship, opening with a win over Fairview and Columbia to reach the final against Hartselle.
The Patriots improved to 11-5 after starting the season with four losses in their first six games. Now Brewer has won nine of its last 10 games and comes out of the holiday break with plenty of momentum.
Hartselle’s Jeremy Roper led all scorers with 18 points after hitting eight of his 13 shots from the field. Manquez Jones added 10 points for the Tigers, who came into the championship riding a six-game winning streak.
But the Tigers had trouble at the free throw line, missing six of 15 free throw attempts in the game.
Brewer struggled early against the Hartselle physical style of play, but the Patriots kept close until it came time for a late run. The Patriots got 3-pointers from six different players (Cody Lanford, Kohl Sowder, Josh Adams, Houston Lanford, Brandon Murray and Preston Hackett).
Hartselle hit just four of 13 attempts from the 3-point line in the loss after hitting seven 3-pointers in a win over the Patriots earlier in the season.
Hartselle opened up a 12-point lead with two minutes remaining in the third quarter, but Brewer answered with consecutive 3-pointers from Houston Lanford and Hackett to get the gap back to six points.
After the back-to-back Brewer treys, Hartselle’s Manquez Jones answered with his own 3-pointer to get the lead back to 46-37 with less than a minute remaining in the quarter.
Jones’ 3-pointer would be the last field goal the Tigers would score in the game - a span of almost nine minutes.
Cody Lanford put together a tremendous run with nine straight points in just over four minutes. His run only came to an end when he picked up his fourth foul with 4:02 remaining in the game and went to the bench.
Marquez Jones hit both of his free throws after Lanford’s fourth foul to trim Brewer’s lead to 50-49.
The Patriots put the game out of reach by scoring six straight points at the line to increase Brewer’s lead to 56-49.
Cody Lanford hit three free throws during the stretch and the Patriots hit nine of 15 free throw attempts down the stretch to put the game out of reach.
Brewer finished 17 of 25 from the free throw line in the win.
Cody Lanford made six of his eight free throw attempts, while Kyle Bowling was good on four of his six attempts from the line.
Brewer will return to action at Cullman Friday, while Hartselle hosts the Decatur Red Raiders.