1A, Area 13 Boys: Tharptown, Belgreen advance to finals
By Bart Moss / For the FCT
Semifinals: Tharptown 55, Hackleburg 48
The Tharptown Wildcats used a great first half defensive effort to stymie the Hackleburg Panthers’ prolific three-point shooters and hung on for dear life to win 55-50 and advance to the finals of the 1A, Area 13 tournament.
The Wildcats will face Belgreen for the fourth time this season Saturday night at 7 p.m.
Tharptown’s mixture of a tight man-to-man and triangle-and-two defense held the Panthers to 15 points in the first half and only 26 percent shooting from the field. The Wildcats cleaned up the boards, pulling down 35 total rebounds, including 13 by Misael Saldana.
“I was really proud of our defensive effort tonight,” said Tharptown coach Shannon Benford. “We wanted to shut down their two main scorers as much as we could, and I thought we executed about as well as I could have hoped for. I am really proud of the guys and how hard they’ve worked to get to the area finals.”
Tharptown jumped out to a 17-10 first quarter lead and extended the lead to 26-15 at halftime.
The Wildcats would have to hold off some late charges by the Panthers in the second half. Hackleburg outscored Tharptown 17-15 in the third quarter to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 41-32. The Panthers cut Tharptown’s lead to three points several times down the stretch, but the Wildcats never relinquished the lead.
Levi McCormack led Tharptown, scoring 19 points. Cole Daniel followed with 12 points. Saldana had 13 points. Edward Lopez added nine points and Aaron Creasy four points.
Semifinals: Belgreen 75, Phillips 36
The Belgreen Bulldogs coasted to an easy semifinal win over the Phillips Bears 75-36 Thursday night. The Bulldogs advance to the finals to face county rival Belgreen Saturday night at 7 p.m.
Belgreen put the game away early, racing out to a 21-8 first quarter lead. The Bulldogs extended the lead to 43-15 at halftime and 58-25 in the third quarter.
Thirteen Bulldogs got in on the scoring action with Mason Bragwell leading the way with 13 points. Eli Hiser followed with nine points and Brant Bragwell with seven points. Payton Scott, Gaven Taylor, Caleb Pinkard, Scout Bragwell, Jake Taylor and Ashlee Britton all scored six points each. Jacob Mayberry finished the game with four points, Seth Taylor with three points, Tanner Warhurst with two points and Isac Willingham one point.
