WEST POINT — One week into the new basketball season, the Holly Pond Broncos have been productive with their up-tempo style that the opposition has not been able to get a grip on.
Last week, Cullman and Scottsboro were unsuccessful in the quest, on Tuesday night, the West Point Warriors were the latest to give it an opportunity, but fall short of victory.
Holly Pond turned back West Point 76-64 at Jim Boyd Gymnasium. This was the Broncos' second straight win away from Felton Easterwood Gym in a span of four days.
Three games into the 2015-16 schedule, the Broncos are producing 79.3 points a contest. In the last 16:00 of this county clash with the Warriors, Holly Pond outscored West Point 43-32.
A hot third period with the Broncos scoring 26 points on 11 field goals, three treys and needing only one free throw point, Holly Pond extended a 33-32 lead at the half into a 59-51 margin with one quarter left to be taken care of.
Six players for Mitch Morris took care of the scoring chores in the third, sharing the ball and producing 11 field goals and getting a steal and basket by Dawson Foust before the period ended to put the lead to eight.
Halfway into the fourth, the Broncos led 67-58 and was able to use five free throws from Bailey Smith in the final 60 seconds to save victory.
Smith would score 18 in the game to support Drew Jones' shooting, who accounted for 19 on eight field goals, five coming in the second half.
Matt Cahoon pumped in 14 points with Caleb Jones scoring eight and Foust finishing the night with seven.
West Point got balanced scoring as Andrew Shaw netted 15, Tanner Rusk 13, Cameron Moore 11, Brandon Farley 10 and Seth Parker nine.
But the Warriors made just four field goals in the final 8:00 in comparison to 14 between the second and third period.
Holly Pond now gets to play Darlington High School from the state of Georgia Thursday while West Point takes a trip into Cullman for a game with the Bearcats.
Holly Pond 50, West Point 40 (Girls)
A 16-2 advantage for the Holly Pond Lady Broncos in the fourth with Holly Pond ending the game on a 13-0 run saw them overcome a deficit of nine points during the half and for 7:00 of the third period.
Melissa Clingman hit two field goals to close out the third and give Holly Pond a chance, trailing 38-34 after they were behind 38-29.
Ruth Horton knocked down a three with less than 6:00 remaining in the game to trigger 13 unanswered points for Scott Adams' squad. She would score seven of her game-high 20 in the final period.
Clingman added 11 to the total, Taylor Tankersley chipped with eight and was four of four from the line.
The Lady Broncos improved to 2-1 and are 1-0 against county opposition.
Bailee Yearwood scored 12 on four treys for John Welborn's Lady Warriors. Olivia Ball added nine, Jeri Beasley had six and Tess Hembree scored four.
West Point dropped to 1-2 overall. Both of these teams play Thursday against Darlington and Cullman and have games for the weekend.
West Point is at Hanceville while Holly Pond goes to Good Hope Friday. The two play in the Danville Thanksgiving Tournament Saturday with Holly Pond meeting Decatur at 10:50 a.m. and West Point playing Danville at 1:30 p.m.
