Red Bay boys finish strong against Wildcats

By Staff
Mike Self FCT Sports Editor
RED BAY - If one of the marks of a good team is being able to win despite not playing well, the Red Bay Tigers may be on to something.
Kurt Kennedy battled through another poor shooting night to score 19 points, and the Tigers held Colbert Heights without a field goal over the final 5:45 to rally for a 57-51 victory on Tuesday.
Red Bay (5-2, 3-0 Class 2A, Area 16) also struggled offensively and trailed for much of the game in Monday night's win over Phil Campbell.
Carpenter said that one of those little things is blocking out on the defensive boards, a flaw Colbert Heights exposed quite frequently on Tuesday.
Limiting the Wildcats to one shot was a hot topic in Carpenter's, ahem, spirited halftime speech.
The Tigers did just that in the fourth quarter, out-scoring Colbert Heights 16-5 to wipe out a five-point deficit.
A three-point play by Randy Lowery capped a 7-0 run by Red Bay and tied the game 48-48, but John Grissom scored to put Colbert Heights back on top.
Kennedy then missed two consecutive threes, including an air ball on a wide-open look, before nailing a trey from the left corner to give the Tigers a 51-50 lead with 4:30 remaining.
Kennedy said he was not hesitant to pull the trigger on the go-ahead three.
After hitting the big shot, Kennedy assisted on layups by Matt Hester and Lowery that pushed the lead to 55-50.
Lowery came up with two big blocks and Kennedy had a pair of critical steals down the stretch as Red Bay clamped down defensively.
Lowery finished with 13 points, and Brandon Colburn added 12 for Red Bay.
Grissom had 15 points to lead the Wildcats, who led by as many as nine points in the third quarter.