HANCEVILLE, Ala. – Good Hope and West Point battled it out in Saturday night’s final County Championship Game and the Raiders put together a dominant second quarter to create some separation and held off the Warriors in the second half to win it 69-55 and capture this year’s county title.
The Raiders went into the locker room with a 19-point lead at halftime, but Head Coach Drew Adams knew his team couldn’t afford to get too comfortable.
“I’ve always been about never being comfortable until a game ends and this team knows we can’t be comfortable because we blew a 16-point lead to Fairview in December, so we know that no lead is safe against a good team. Fairview was a good team and West Point is a good team. So, I think we were up 19 or 20 at halftime but we knew it wasn’t safe,” Adams said. “The main thing is on the defensive side we just have to continue to get stops so no we were not comfortable with that one until there was about a minute left.”
The county championship isn’t the only goals the Raiders have set for themselves this season but Adams is proud of the way his guys competed throughout the week to bring home some very meaningful hardware.
“These guys know that the one thing that has gotten us in the last five or six years is, we’ve won some county championships but man we want to get back to Regionals and make some noise there so that’s the ultimate goal,” Adams said. “But, like I’ve told some other people, people around here make a really big deal about this tournament so if we’re going to get to play in it, we want to do well, and the guys played really hard. They left nothing out there and they were relentless on Friday and Saturday night so even though this is not our ultimate goal, it is a rung in the ladder that we wanted and I’m really proud of them for accomplishing that goal.”
K’mal Bell drilled a three-pointer and Tucker Malin scored inside to give the Raiders a 5-0 start in the opening period and after Bell split a pair of free throws, Malin knocked down a jumper to make it 8-0. Kolten Perry split a pair of free throws on the other end to get the Warriors on the board, but Weston Hancock scored in the paint to put Good Hope in front 10-1. Baskets by Perry and Jacob Harbison trimmed the lead to 10-5 midway through the first, but the Raiders responded with buckets from Bell and Tyler Cone to make it a 14-5 game. JD Cochran hit a pair of free throws to bring the lead down to 14-7 and West Point managed to cut it all the way to 17-11 by the end of the first quarter.
Cade Welborn nailed a three to cut the deficit to 19-14 early in the second quarter but it was all Good Hope after that. The Raiders finished the period on a 22-6 run, fueled mostly by Bell and Cone, to take a commanding, 41-20 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Baskets by Cochran and Perry made it a 41-24 game to start the third quarter, but Malin answered with another three-pointer and Cone dunked one in transition to keep Good Hope ahead 46-24. Maddox Chapman and Cochran both scored in the paint to hold the lead to 18 and Jay Lamar laid one in to trim the lead to 46-30.
A pair of Harbison baskets cut the lead to 55-39 early in the final frame but Bell sank a pair of free throws and Dakota Overton converted an and-one play to keep the Raiders in front 60-41 with five minutes to play. Bell lobbed one up for Cone in transition and he caught it at the rim and laid it in to make it a 62-41 game. Back to back buckets by Cochran on the other end brought the lead down to 62-45 midway through the fourth and the Warriors wouldn’t go away, cutting the lead to 13 with just over a minute on the clock. However, the effort wasn’t enough to overcome Good Hope’s lead and the Raiders captured this year’s county crown with a 69-55 win over West Point.
Bell led the way for Good Hope with 23 points in the win and Cone finished with 19. Cochran led the Warriors with 20 points in the loss.
Varsity Boys All-County Basketball Team
Tucker Malin, Good Hope
Tyler Cone, Good Hope
K’mal Bell, Good Hope
Weston Hancock, Good Hope
Kolten Perry, West Point
Jay Lamar, West Point
Carson Garrett, Hanceville
Noah Jones, Hanceville
Kollin Brown, Holly Pond
Coles Bales, Cold Springs
Blake Rickard, Fairview
Kobe Payne, Fairview
Isaiah Jones, Vinemont
Jordan Eller, Vinemont
Varsity Boys All-County Tournament Team
K’mal Bell, Good Hope
Tucker Malin, Good Hope
Kollin Brown, Holly Pond
Jay Lamar, West Point
Kolten Perry, West Point
Landun Smith, Fairview
Kobe Payne, Fairview
Eli Thomas Memorial Scholarship Winner
Cole Bales, Cold Springs
Joe Shults Award Winner
Kollin Brown, Holly Pond
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