HANCEVILLE, Ala. – (4) Holly Pond clashed with (5) Hanceville in our first varsity boys battle of this year’s county tournament Monday night and it was one of the tightest matchups of the tournament so far. The Bulldogs led by 3 at halftime but rallied in the second half to earn a 53-44 win and a spot in the varsity boys’ semifinals later this week.
Baskets by Fox Westall, Cade Allbright and Carson Ryan gave the Broncos a 6-0 lead early in the opening period but Sam Abney laid one in and Drake Bentley buried a three to cut the lead to 6-5. Peyton Twilley drained a three later in the first to tie the game at 8 but a basket from Bentley and a pair of Kingsley Brown free throws put Hanceville back in front 12-8. Bentley nailed another three to make it a 15-8 game, but Ty Dunn knocked down another three in the final seconds of the first to trim the lead to 15-11 going into the second.
Dalton Pirkle scored inside to put the Bulldogs in front 17-11 but Dunn drained back to back threes to tie the game at 17 with 3:30 remaining in the first half. Abney and Asher Thrift exchanged baskets to keep the score knotted at 19 but Twilley was able to hit one more three before the end of the second quarter to give Hanceville a 22-19 lead at the halftime break.
Ryan opened the third quarter with a three-pointer that tied the game back up at 22 but baskets by Abney and Ashton Hurst put the Bulldogs ahead 26-22. Dunn responded with a bucket on the other end to make it a 2-point game, but Hurst converted an and-one play at the line and Bentley split a pair of free throws to extend the lead to 30-24. Sawyer Olinger and Jacob Keith exchanged three-pointers to make it a 33-27 game and later in the period, Dunn got back to back jumpers to fall to cut the lead to 34-31. However, Twilley knocked down a three from the left corner in the final seconds of the third to give the Bulldogs a 37-31 lead going into the fourth.
Abney scored inside to make it 39-31 early in the fourth quarter but the Broncos continued to battle back. Allbright split a pair of free throws, Olinger scored a pair of baskets and Asher Thrift knocked down a three to trim the lead to 41-39 with just over four minutes to play. Ryan buried another three-pointer to tie the game at 42 with three minutes to play and after Holly Pond came up with a big stop on the defensive end, Carson scored on a fast break to give the Broncos their first lead since the first quarter at 44-42. Ryan sank a pair of free throws with 46 seconds on the clock to put Holly Pond up 4 and Olinger hit three of his next four attempts from the line to make it a 49-42 game with 27 seconds to play, putting things out of reach for the Bulldogs. The Broncos spent the remainder of the game at the free throw line, allowing them to pull away with a 53-44 win over Hanceville and secure a spot in the semifinals.
Ryan led the way for Holly Pond with 16 points in the win and Olinger and Dunn each finished with 12. Twilley led Hanceville with 11 points in the loss, followed by Bentley with nine and Abney with seven.
The Broncos will take on the top-seeded West Point Warriors in the varsity boys’ semifinals Friday at 6:15 p.m.
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