HANCEVILLE – Triston Chambers was pleased to pull off an individual feat in becoming the leading scorer in Cullman County High School basketball history.
That took place Tuesday night with 33 points the Cold Springs Eagle senior sharpshooter delivered in the first round of the Hanceville Thanksgiving Tournament.
But what was a significant factor, Cold Springs defeated Mortimer Jordan 55-45 in a first-round encounter of undefeated teams. The Eagles now will deal with their second straight opponent with a perfect mark in Dora on Wednesday in the semifinal round at 7:00 p.m.
Dora ran its early season status to 4-0 by pulling away from the Good Hope Raiders 63-45.
Chambers single handily propelled the Eagles into the lead after the opening quarter. He had 15 points and the Eagles clung to a three-point advantage with the Blue Devils.
Cold Springs created a little space on Mortimer Jordan, scoreboard wise, leading when the game headed to halftime.
But Tim Willoughby’s offense had trouble scoring during the third period and Mortimer Jordan took advantage with 11 straight and led 36-32 with under 3:00 to go in the period.
Chambers hit a three-pointer that pushed him into first place all-time, passing Cullman’s Brontae Harris who had 2,256 points. Harris earned the mark last year in moving past former Vinemont standout Jared Hembree who wound produce 2,252 points in his prep career.
That enabled the Eagles to finish the third with an 11-0 run and 43-35 lead. Mortimer Jordan slowed him and the Eagles for a moment, but couldn’t keep them from getting on track with Chambers leading the assault.
Cold Springs got the lead to 55-39 late and withstood a brief run by the Devils to narrow the final margin to 10 points.
The Eagles are 5-0 with the Blue Devils falling to 2-1. Josh Freeman added nine and Jesse Lee had eight to assist the scoring of Chambers, who has 97 points in his last three games.
While Dora topped Good Hope before the Cold Springs game, the Bulldogs finished the game on a 19-7 run after the Raiders closed to 44-38 early in the final period. Dora was led by Alex Russell with 15 with Good Hope getting 14 from Matt Cofer and 10 by Blake Lyle.
The bottom half of the bracket saw Corner knock off Tarrant 68-55 as Sam Knowlton hit for a game high 24 points to keep the Yellow Jackets undefeated at 3-0.
Then Hanceville blasted Curry 51-26 as Issac Weissend anchored a balanced scoring group with 11 and Brendan Flanigan netted eight. The Bulldogs improved to 3-1 with their second straight victory.
On Wednesday, Good Hope and Mortimer Jordan play at 4 p.m., followed by Curry and Tarrant at 5:30 p.m. The first semifinal is Cold Springs and Dora at 7 p.m. then Hanceville and Corner at 8:15 p.m.
