Brown, Berry earn all-area honors

By By Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
Hartselle’s boys’ basketball team fell 49 seconds short of a reaching the Northwest Regional this season, but that didn’t diminish the Tigers’ long list of achievements the season.
Hartselle won the Class 5A, Area 13 championship.
And the Tigers beat rival Brewer and West Morgan to claim the Morgan County championship.
Faced with a team with little varsity experience, the Tigers turned to senior Alex Brown to help the team finish with a 19-14 mark.
Brown, who averaged 10.5 points per game, is the 2008 Hartselle Enquirer Player of the Year. Hartselle head coach Johnny Berry earned Coach of the Year honors in voting conducted by his peers in the area.
Named to the first-team were Brown and teammate Rodney Stansberry, Brewer’s Cody Lanford, Falkville’s Joseph Lacey and Roger Smith of Danville.
Brown scored in double figures 15 times for the Tigers, despite missing several games with a staph infection.
He also recorded a career high with 41 points in a victory over West Point. He finished the season 119-for-292 from the field, a percentage of .408.
Lacey, a junior, finished with an average of 18 points per game for the Blue Devils, leading his team in scoring in 21 of 25 games.
Lacey scored 20 points or more three times this season and topped the 30-point mark twice, including a 37-point effort against Hatton.
Smith, a senior, averaged 15 points and eight rebounds per game for Danville this season.
He had a season-high 29 points and 17 rebounds in a win over Good Hope.
Lanford sparked Brewer to a spot in the Morgan County tournament finals this season, averaging 10 points per game.
A top shooter from outside, especially when the game was on the line, Lanford shot 35 percent from the 3-point line for the Patriots.
Hartselle’s most valuable player, Rodney Stansberry led the Tigers in scoring with 11.2 points per game.
He was the most valuable player in the Morgan County tournament after beating West Morgan in the championship, He had 19 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Tigers to the title.
He finished the year with 369 points for Hartselle.
A junior, Stansberry scored in double figures in 19 games for the Tigers. He started in all 33 of Hartselle’s games this season, one of three Tigers to start every game.