Brewer delivers down stretch

By Staff
Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
The Brewer Lady Patriots found themselves in a rare position Saturday in the girls’ varsity championship game of the Morgan County Tournament against Hartselle.
The tournament’s top seed needed an incredible finish to pull off a 51-47 win in the final after trailing by 10 points with less than three minutes left in the game.
The win capped a tough week for the Brewer student body. Friday night, Brewer student Mark David Towne was killed in a one-vehicle car accident.
Brewer improved to 20-2 overall with the win over the rival Lady Tigers. Emily Dabbs scored 18 points after hitting nine of 12 free throw attempts. She scored 12 points in the fourth quarter.
Kendra Jones added 11 points, while Morgan Crawley finished with eight points. Meagan Hormel had six steals in the win, including a late steal that set up a key four-point play by Dabbs late in the game.
The championship continued Brewer’s domination of the varsity girls’ tournament the last 19 years. During that stretch, Allen has led the Lady Patriots to the championship 13 times, including six of the past seven years.
Hartselle senior Jessi Smith scored 14 points and seven rebounds. Alex Holmes chipped in with 10 points and eight rebounds.
The Lady Tigers’ Lauren Dye added 10 rebounds before fouling out in the fourth quarter.
Brewer made just 17 of 34 free throw attempts in the game. Hartselle made five of its 11 free throws.
Hartselle, the tournament’s third seed, looked like a team on a mission early. The Lady Tigers, who had lost to Brewer in their two earlier meetings this season, pushed out to a 13-6 lead with the help of a pair of 3-pointers from Smith and another from Anna Reeves.
Brewer wasn’t about to hand over the championship trophy, though, scoring six straight to close out the quarter with a 13-12 deficit.
The two teams battled through the second quarter with Hartselle taking a 23-22 lead just before the end of the first half.
Brewer went scoreless for nearly five minutes to open the second half as Hartselle extended its lead to 31-23 on a free throw by Holmes.
The Lady Patriots got untracked with a three-point play by Dabbs that highlighted a 9-4 run to trim the lead to three heading into the final quarter.
Brewer’s struggles at the line hurt in the fourth quarter. The Lady Patriots were just 1-for-7 in the first six minutes of the quarter to fall behind 45-35 with 2:46 remaining in the game.
Dabbs answered with a basket and Crawley added a free throw to get the deficit under 10 with two minutes left.
Jones followed with another bucket and Crawley hit two more free throws.
In a span of just a minute, the Lady Patriots had trimmed the lead to three at 45-42.
Meagan Hormel forced a steal on the next possession and Dabbs completed the run with a 3-pointer while getting fouled to tie the game.
Her free throw to complete the four-point play gave Brewer their first lead since the opening minute of the second quarter.
Heather Speegle, who finished with eight points and two blocks, scored with 1:08 left to tie the game at 47-47.
But Dabbs put the final touches on the championship by hitting all four of her free throws in the last 33 seconds to seal the win.