Hawks comeback to win Area 12 title
By Staff
Staff Reports, Hartselle Enquirer
The Danville Hawks came back from nine points down in the second half Monday night to beat Good Hope and captured the area championship.
Led by head coach Robert Pope, who played on Danville's back-to-back state championship teams in 1962-63, the Hawks moved a step closer to the Northwest Regional at Wallace State Feb. 22-26.
3A, Area 12
Danville 67,
Good Hope 60
The visiting Raiders seemed to be making all their shots in the opening half as they had a six-point halftime lead and briefly led by nine early in the third period.
However, behind the scoring of Nate Orr, Patrick Pinchon and Matt Young the Hawks roared back and outscored Good Hope 38-26 over the game's final 15 minutes to win the title.
Orr and Pinchon both poured in 20 points, while Young finished with 15 points.
Also scoring for Danville was DJ Bridges and Stratton Garner with five each, while Dexter Wimberly had two points.
Pinchon grabbed nine boards to lead Danville, while Orr had eight, and Young and Bridges grabbed five each.
Orr handed out sic assists, while Wimberly had three more.
The fifth-ranked Hawks improved to 25-2 and will host a sub-regional game Feb. 18 at 7 p.m.
Danville 76,
JB Pennington 52
The Hawks captured win No. 24 behind the strong play of Matt Young, Nate Orr and Patrick Pinchon.
Young, who sank five three-pointers, finished with a game-high 20 points, while Orr had 17 and Pinchon 15 to help Danville reach the 3A, Area 12 title game.
The Hawks, who led 16-9 after one period, used a 15-5 run in the second period to put the game on ice. Young would contribute a trio of three-pointers and Orr along with Stratton Garner had five points each in the opening half of play.
In the third period the Hawks outscored Good Hope 21-14 to open a 52-28 margin with one period to play.
Danville enjoyed its biggest lead when Pinchon scored on a put-back with 3:42 to play to push the margin to 70-42.
Pope then emptied his bench as Young, Pinchon and Orr left to standing ovations.
5A, Area 16
Muscle Shoals 63,
Hartselle 46
The Hartselle Tigers' basketball season came to an end Friday night in the semi-finals of the 5A, Area 16 tournament in Athens. Hartselle was bested by Muscle Shoals, 63-46.
Tiger head coach Johnny Berry said the game took a pattern similar to Hartselle's entire season.
"We played hard," Berry said. "But we just didn't make enough of our open shots."
Keith Rodgers scored a game-high 23 points for the Tigers, followed by Daxton Maze with nine, Steven Chop with six, Alex Thompson and Chase Lusk scored three points each and Justin Billings scored two.
Hartselle ended the year with a 7-20 record, their second straight losing season.
The Tigers finished 10-18 in 2004.
Nine seniors played their last game in a Tiger uniform. They are Keith Rodgers, Loren Grantland, Michell Klan, Gary Orr, Alex Thompson, Art Daves, Chase Lusk, Samuel Massey and Eric Norwood.
