FALKVILLE – Good Hope had its best outing so far in the basketball play-day series, knocking off three opponents Tuesday in Falkville.
Two of the wins came in the morning time at the Falkville Elementary gym over Lawrence County and New Hope.
Then to compile a perfect day, the Raiders invaded Tom Drake Coliseum in the early afternoon and met a stout unit from Decatur Heritage.
The Raiders wiped out an eight-point deficit in the final 8:50, using balanced scoring from inside and outside to stun the Eagles 57-55.
Kallen Sharpton completed a well executed play in the closing seconds, hitting a three after a timeout, and the defense followed it with a stop on Heritage's final possession of the contest.
Threes were coming from different parts of the floor all game long for Drew Adams' Raiders. Their first four shots of the game were treys, but they were behind 15-12 with 12:45 to go in the half, due to Decatur Heritage getting scoring from close range, the foul line and the perimeter.
Trailing 26-19 at the 8:00 mark, the Raiders began the first in a series of comeback runs, closing the deficit to 32-31 at the half when Cole Maddox cut to the basket and made a layup as time expired.
Decatur Heritage started strong in the second half, taking advantage of Raider mistakes and were up 38-31 less than 3:00 into the stanza. Isaac McDonald answered for Good Hope with back-to-back to back threes at the right wing and Good Hope closed to 42-40 with less than 14:00 to go.
The Raiders regained the lead at 43-42 when Mason Moniz connected on a three with 13:09 showing. Then Decatur Heritage had another spurt and the Eagles moved the lead to 53-45 with a layup at 8:54 in the period.
That was the last time the Eagles scored for a while. Good Hope's defense did not allow the Eagles points for a span of almost 8:00. The offense for the Raiders was divided between McDonald, Cole Maddox, Drew Maddox and Michael Lowe.
Lowe knocked down a fall away jumper from the right post with 1:04 to play and the Raiders were on a 9-0 run, leading 54-53.
Decatur Heritage needed just 14 seconds on possession to slide back on top with a layup at 0:40 and the Eagles were up 55-54.
Coach Adams called a timeout with 0:29 and set up a play the Raiders executed perfectly. Sharpton went to the right baseline, took a pass from McDonald and drained the three that sent the Raiders ahead 57-55.
The Eagles were determined to try and tie the game. The ball got knocked out of bounds as the horn sounded, but the Eagles were given another chance when the clock was reset to 1.8 seconds.
Trying to get the ball into their center, the Eagles did, but Sharpton and teammates forced him to alter the attempt, which he missed and the game was over.
Sharpton and McDonald delivered 14 each to the winning side, Drew Maddox got 12, Cole Maddox seven, Moniz five, Landon Freeman three and Lowe two.
McDonald and Drew Maddox both converted three shots from long range with two by Sharpton and one from Moniz, Cole Maddox and Freeman for a game-high 11.
The Raiders will close out the play-day series this weekend down on the plains at Auburn University. Good Hope will play three games Friday and three on Saturday, plus get to visit with Tigers' head coach Bruce Pearl and play inside the Auburn Arena.
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