Top-ranked Pickens County downs Tharptown 79-57

HANCEVILLE – Tharptown fought hard, but in the end Pickens County was too much to handle and the Wildcats lost in their first trip to the Northwest Regional Basketball Tournament 79-57.

Tharptown trailed 14-11 at the end of the first quarter but Pickens County took control in the second half, outscoring the Wildcats 35-12.

“We knew we were coming into a tough game,” Tharptown coach Jonathan Odom said. “We didn’t want to get embarrassed.”

Tharptown outscored Pickens County by four points in the second half, but by then the damage had been done.

Deion Curry, who scored a game-high 17 points, helped propel the Tornadoes second-quarter surge with 11 points that quarter.

“Coach told us to wake up and play our game,” Curry said. “We had to turn it up.”

Part of turning it up included buckling down of defense.

Odom said part of the Wildcats’ problems in the game was getting the offense rolling.

“We pride ourselves on running our offense,” Odom said. “We couldn’t get it going.”

Tharptown had 28 turnovers and Pickens County took advantage by scoring 38 points off turnovers.

Nick Long led the Wildcats with nine points while Jacob Parker and Wade Berryman scored eight points each. Also scoring for Tharptown were Kelby Hallmark (7), Wesley Borden (7), Kent Allen (5), Rile Hughes (5), Riley Nolan (3), Cody Cagle (2), Hayden Flemming (2) and Nathan Gray (1).

Despite the 22-point loss the Wildcats had a good showing against the team that won the Class 2A state title last year before dropping to Class 1A this season.

“Us moving down to 1A, we didn’t know what to expect from this team,” Curry said. “They surprised me. They do a lot of things well.”