Wildcats advance to finals
By Bart Moss for the FCT
Tharptown and Belgreen will face each other for the 1A, Area 13 championship Saturday night at 7PM. Tharptown defeated Hackleburg 79-65. Belgreen coasted past Phillips 89-51.
The Tharptown Wildcats pulled off a minor upset Thursday night to advance to the finals of the 1A, Area 13 championship game to play county rival Belgreen. The Wildcats full court pressure defense and two key three pointers helped Tharptown defeat Hackleburg 79-65. Tharptown had lost to the Panthers twice in the regular season.
Tharptown held a slight advantage at the end of the first quarter 15-13. The Wildcats got hot in the second quarter outscoring Hackleburg 24-10, including a 15-0 run to close out the half, to take a 39-23 lead into the locker room. The Panther went on a run of their own in the third quarter outscoring Tharptown 23-16 to give Tharptown a 55-46 lead going into the final quarter of play. Hackleburg cut Tharptown’s lead to eight points, 63-55, with 5:04 to go in the the game before senior Braden Key nailed back-to-back three pointers to stop the Panthers run and give the Wildcats a 69-55 lead. The Panthers would get the Tharptowns lead back down to seven, 71-64, with 2:29 to go in the game but that was as close as they would get.
Mikey Rosson led Tharptown with 26 points. Key added 13 points. Levi McCormack and Cole Daniel had 11 points and 10 points respectively. Matt Hall added eight points, Carson Petree had five points, Misael Saldana four points, and Alex Argueta two points.
Kaleb Moore led Hackleburg with 29 points.
The top-seed in 1A, Area 13 had no problem advancing to the finals Thursday night. The Belgreen Bulldogs easily dispatched the Phillips Bears 89-51. The Bulldogs scored twenty-plus points in each of the first three quarters and cruised to a win.
Belgreen raced out to a 28-13 first quarter lead. The Bulldogs added to their lead in the second quarter outscoring Phillips 21-12 to take a 28-25 halftime lead. Belgreen extended their lead even further in the third quarter to 77-38.
Mason Bragwell led Belgreen with 25 points. Brant Bragwell and Joseph Welch added 11 points each. Jacob Mayberry and Adam Green pitched in 10 points each. Shane Devaney finished with six points. Logan Seay, Payton Scott, and Seth Taylor had four points each. Grayson Moore and Caleb Pinkard had two points each.
Brandon Green led Phillips with 19 points.
