WEST POINT – It was another day full of basketball at Jim Boyd Gymnasium Tuesday afternoon as the 2016 West Point Christmas Tournament continued with day two action.
Curry 49, Cold Springs 36
In the first game of the loser’s bracket, the Cold Springs Eagles looked to get back on track against the Curry Yellow Jackets after they fell to Brewer 69-39 Monday night. However, Curry had other plans.
Zac Wheeler got Curry on the board first with a three that torched the twine. Jesse Lee answered with a jumper for Cold Springs, but Curry stayed hot from beyond the arc. Payton Key and Reed Baily added a pair of deep shots to help Curry to an 11-4 advantage that forced a Cold Springs timeout. Out of the break, the score was even at six each to give the Yellowjackets a 17-10 lead after one.
Curry’s Caleb Aaron pushed the Yellowjacket lead to nine in the first 30 seconds of the quarter but Cold Springs answered with an offensive explosion. The Eagles went on a 10-0 run to tie the game at 19 but it was Curry that had the last shot, a lay-up by Caleb Woodard, that put the Yellowjackets in front 21-19 at the half.
Coming out of the locker room after the half, Cold Springs’ Lee buried a three that gave the Eagles their first lead of the game 22-21. Curry quickly answered with a pair of free throws by Aaron to give the lead back to Curry for good. The Yellowjackets proceeded to go on a 17-0 run to close out the quarter up 38-22.
Cold Springs fought hard in the fourth, outscoring Curry 14-11, but the 17-0 run in the third was too much to overcome as the Eagles fell 49-36. Cold Springs will play in the consolation bracket Thursday at 4 p.m. against the Eagles of Decatur Heritage, who were defeated by Danville 61-52.
Corner 55, West Point 51
In the first winner’s bracket game, it was the host West Point Warriors, fresh off their 61-32 drumming of Danville, against the Yellowjackets of Corner who snuck by Decatur Heritage 55-48.
Curry opened the game with an 8-3 run thanks to points by Tyler Barrrett, Colton Fikes, Jason Manning and a two-handed gorilla dunk by Sam Knowlton, prompting a Warrior timeout. West Point got on track out of the break, putting together a 10-0 run of their own to take a 13-8 lead. Corner responded with a 6-0 run to end the quarter on top 14-13.
Fikes extended the Yellowjacket lead to open the quarter, but threes from Coby Sullins and Cameron Moore kept things close. The action went back and forth for the remainder of the quarter with both teams trading points and turnovers. When the dust finally settled, it was Corner with the 28-26 lead at the half.
West Point quickly took the lead in the opening minutes of the third thanks to deep threes by Kolton Sapp and Toby Cunningham. Corner answered back with an and one from Manning and we were off to the races again. Both teams found the bottom of the net with relative ease. The play mirrored the second except, this time, it was West Point that came out with the lead, 41-40, going to the final and deciding frame.
Austin Dubberly extended the Warrior lead with a pair from the charity stripe to start the fourth, but Corner answered with a 7-0 run to put West Point in a 47-43 hole. Down but not out, Moore responded with a huge three to close the gap to just one. Knowlton pushed the lead back to three with one of his three baskets in the quarter. He then added a pair of free throws, extending the lead to five. Moore then buried a three, cutting the Yellowjacket lead to just two. Knowlton was called for traveling on the Corner end, giving West Point an opening. The Warriors got a good look but Manning came up big with a block. West Point was then forced to foul. Barrett hit both free throws, pushing the lead to four. Sapp cut the lead to two but on the subsequent foul, Skylar Lara sank both free throws to effectively end the game.
Corner took the game 55-51 to advance to the championship game against Brewer with the game slated to start at 7:45 p.m. Thursday. West Point will face Priceville on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in the third-place game.
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