by Bart Moss for the FCT

Belgreen 45, Tharptown 28

The Belgreen Bulldogs defeated the Tharptown Wildcats 45-28 to capture the 9th grade boys Franklin County championship.

Belgreen led 9-5 at the end of the first quarter.  The Bulldogs outscored the Wildcats 13-10 in the second quarter to extend their lead to 22-15 at halftime.  Tharptown clawed their way back in the third quarter outscoring Belgreen 10-6 to cut Belgreen’s lead to 28-25.  Belgreen pulled away with a 17-3 fourth quarter explosion to take the win and the championship.

“I was very happy and excited for our guys to win the championship again,” said Belgreen coach Chuck Simmons.  “They are a great group of guys who are strong character guys and they love the game.  It is a great reward to win the championship because of their hard work.

“Tharptown played hard and they did a good job of getting Daniel the ball down low,” said Simmons.  “We got two of our guys in foul trouble early on.  I thought we came out flat to start the second half.  We ran a simple base offense to get our guys back to the basics.  That seemed to work well for us.”

Brant Bragwell led Belgreen with 11 points.  Others scoring for Belgreen were Jake Taylor (9), Seth Taylor (8), Jacob Mayberry (8), Mason Bragwell (7), and Mason Donahoe (2).

Cole Daniel had a game-high 18 points to lead Tharptown.  Others scoring for Tharptown were Levi McCormack (6), Aaron Creasy (2), and Misel Saldana (2).

9th Grade Boys Semi-Finals

Belgreen 72, Vina 17

The Belgreen Bulldogs defeated the Vina Red Devils 72-17 to advance to the Franklin County tournament finals.

Brant Bragwell led the Bulldogs with 13 points.  Ethan Colvin led Vina with six points.