Knights top BHS in finals

By By Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
FLORETTE - Brewer’s Jordan Bowling had an offensive performance to remember against Arab in the championship game of the Big Blue Classic last Wednesday at Brewer High School.
Unfortunately, the final outcome was less than memorable for the Patriots as Arab rallied for a 70-66 victory.
Jordan Bowling finished with 37 points in the loss after making 11 of 15 free throw attempts. He also had six of Brewer’s 10 three-pointers in the game.
Brandon Murray and Garrett Crawford added eight points each for the Patriots.
Brewer was making its third appearance in the championship game in the last four years. The Patriots’ last championship came in the 2007 tournament.
Brewer dropped to 7-9 overall with the loss.
The Patriots looked like they were in control of the game early in the second half when they stretched the lead to 16 points. But the lead was quickly cut to nine by the Knights with just 2:03 remaining in the third quarter.
Arab scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to tie the game at 55-55. And #1 layup with 4:26 left in the game gave Arab its first lead of the second half at 57-55.
Arab held off Brewer and pulled out to a 63-59 lead with a minute left in the game.
Brewer kept close down the stretch and Jordan Bowling’s 3-pointer with 12.3 seconds left trimmed the Knights’ lead to 67-65.
Arab sealed the win by hitting three of four free throws in the closing seconds.
Albertville 52, Hartselle 49
Albertville rallied from a 26-24 halftime deficit to stun Hartselle in the third place game.
The Aggies outscored Hartselle 28-23 in the second half, but Hartselle still had a chance to tie the game in the closing seconds but a 3-point attempt by Terry Wiggins from the corner missed its mark.
Sam Fleischman led Hartselle with 17 points. He also added seven rebounds in the loss.
Tres Austin and Chance Partlow finished with 11 and 10 points respectively.
Albertville’s T.J. Vines had 14 points in the win, while Dareon Thompson added 13 points.
Hartselle came up short in the game despite shooting nearly 64 percent from the floor. The Tigers were nine of 15 from the field in the second half.
Albertville got 16 points off the bench to help spark the comeback.
Hartselle had opened the game with a 10-2 run, but Albertville managed to get back to within five points by the end of the first quarter.