Fear the beard

J.R. Tidwell/FCT Belgreen’s Brock Hester puts up a shot from inside the paint against the Phil Campbell Bobcats Tuesday night at NWSCC.

PHIL CAMPBELL — Senior Brock Hester is a post player for the Belgreen Bulldogs.

Last year one of his main tasks was to back up or compliment fellow post man Jake Tittle, who was voted First Team All-County in 2012.

After Tittle graduated, Hester was left with more responsibility working in the paint for the Bulldogs.

In Belgreen’s 63-46 win over county rival Phil Campbell Tuesday night, Hester proved to everyone in the gym what he could do.

Hester pulled down 12 rebounds, but the number that was much more impressive was his 35 points in a single game.

All told Hester came out of the game with a double-double and more points scored than the rest of his teammates combined (28).

The young man’s effort helped push his team to yet another win, and post play like what was found in his performance will help Belgreen with any opponent they face.

“I didn’t really know what my point total was during the game,” Hester said.

“I was just getting rebounds, putting the ball back up and shooting when my teammates passed me the ball. That’s the most points I’ve ever had in a game.”

Outside of Hester’s performance was a rivalry match between Belgreen and Phil Campbell, and things were very close in the first half.

There were four lead changes between the two teams by the early goings of the second quarter, and on the last change Belgreen went ahead 21-19 and would not give up the advantage again.

The Bulldogs closed out the second quarter on a 19-6 run, giving them a 37-25 lead going into the break.

“We’ve been talking about things we need to do, and we are trying to be more aggressive on offense,” Belgreen head coach Greg Watson said.

“We don’t back down from anyone, but sometimes we would get frustrated and let [Phil Campbell] shoot open 3s.

“This is a good group of kids though, and they deserve a lot of the credit.”

After intermission the pace of the game continued in mostly the same fashion.

The Bulldogs had a 55-38 lead by the end of the period after outscoring the Bobcats 18-13 in the third.

The fourth quarter saw both teams combine for just 15 points, but it was Belgreen that came away with the 17-point victory.

“We didn’t play very well tonight,” Phil Campbell head coach Will Copeland said.

“We couldn’t stop Hester. We’re not playing well right now. In life you have to deal with the hand that is dealt to you, and we’ll work through it.

“We still have a chance to host the area, and that will be decided in our game Friday night against Red Bay.”

Hester’s 35 points made him both the leading scorer for both the Bulldogs and the game.

Nick Miller had 10 for Belgreen and Chase Landers added 8. Also scoring for the Bulldogs were: Dustin Smith (6), Jared Mitchell (2) and Hugo Castillo (2).

Although outshined by Hester’s performance, Craig Saint had a big night for Phil Campbell.

He scored 16 points, most of which came off of five 3s hit early on.

Colton Vickery totaled 11, and Cameron Harris had 9 points all off of 3s.

Also scoring for Phil Campbell were: Hayden Bell (4), Skeeter Benford (2) and Jamie Dorroh (2).

—stats kept by Jeremy Reed