Buzzer beaters

By Staff
Belgreen claims county Scholars Bowl title
Kim West
VINA – Belgreen scored at least 200 points per game en route to its first championship at the second annual Franklin County Junior High Scholars Bowl tournament Friday morning at Vina High School.
Belgreen, which went 4-8 in the regular season and was seeded fifth in the tournament, defeated No. 2 Vina (270-75), No. 3 Red Bay (200-160) and East Franklin (245-100) to win the title. Belgreen starters included Tyler Nelson, Brock Hester, Shawn Hall and team captain Jordan Oldag.
Top-seeded East Franklin finished as the regular-season champion with an 11-1 record, with the Rebels splitting its two matches with Belgreen. No. 4 seed Tharptown nearly upset East Franklin in the tournament's opening round with both teams tied at 130 points, but the Rebels, led by captain Cory Potter and starters David Sparks, Gabriel Fleming and Bryan Jimenez, correctly answered the second tiebreaker question to advance to the final round.
Red Bay won third place by edging sixth-seeded Phil Campbell 195-165 before falling to Belgreen in the semifinal round.
The tournament questions covered a variety of topics, including pop culture, science, spelling, math, grammar, literature, history and civics. Each match had 500 total points available and consisted of two 10-question toss-up rounds, a 10-question round with bonus questions and a team worksheet round with 20 questions worth five points apiece.
Oldag finished as the high scorer in the tournament with 175 individual points, while Hall placed second with 90 points and Potter tallied 75 to earn third place.
Team-high scorers also included Vina's Jessica Pickle, Tharptown captain Lauren Wilkinson, Phil Campbell's Joseph Butts and Steven Reed of Red Bay.