The Broncos had to hold their breath as a desperation 3-point shot by Vinemont’s Trevor Yarbrough bounced off the back iron at the buzzer, securing a 59-56 win for the home team.
Holly Pond’s boys will host Winfield on Friday night in the sub-regional playoffs, while Vinemont will go on the road to face Carbon Hill.
Holly Pond coach Mitch Morris said winning the area championship is nice, but the bigger victory Monday night was clinching a home game in the next round.
“It’s nice to get that big trophy, but being able to host that sub-region game is huge,” Morris said. “We wanted to find the easiest route to Wallace State, and that was to win the area championship and host that sub-regional game.”
Leading 55-54 with less than 70 seconds left in the game, Holly Pond guard Colby Adams came up with a steal at mid-court, raced in for a layup, was fouled and sank the free throw.
“They couldn’t get it to their point guard,” Morris said of the key play in the game. “We blocked that off, and they threw it over his head and Colby picked it up and had a big basket. That was huge. He’s played hard for us all year long. He doesn’t see himself at 5’7” or 5’8.”
A tough, driving layup by Yarbrough, combined with three missed free throws by Holly Pond in the final 30 seconds gave the Eagles a final chance to send the game to overtime, but good defense forced Yarbrough to take a 30-foot shot at the buzzer that was off the mark.
Morris said he thought the Broncos were in good shape late in the third quarter. Following an 8-0 run by Vinemont to tie the score 39-39 with 6:08 left in the period, Holly Pond put together a 10-0 run to take its first double-digit lead of the game.
“Vinemont came out ready to play tonight and played extremely hard,” Morris said. “They met everything we threw at them. When we got a 10-point lead in the second half I thought we had them, but we had a couple turnovers and they got a couple buckets and were right back in it again.”
Duncan Hopper sank a half-court 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter, cutting Vinemont’s deficit to seven points, and the Eagles scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to pull within one at 51-50.
Thomas Hays scored 17 points in the first half to lead the Broncos but was held scoreless in the second half. Adams finished with 13 points, and Gunter Morris added 11.
No comments:
Post a Comment