HANCEVILLE — Somebody is going to have to rip Vinemont’s five senior starters out of Wallace State’s Tom Drake Coliseum this week. There’s no way they’ll exit their final Cullman County Basketball Tournament quietly.

The Eagles made that abundantly clear while opening the varsity boys bracket Monday, turning the tables on Fairview with a timely second-half timeout en route to a 59-46 victory.

Fourth-seeded Vinemont stretched its lead to 33-24 two minutes into the third quarter before the No. 5 Aggies took off on an 8-1 run to pull within two. It was at that precise moment coach Todd Johnson decided to call a timeout, using the stoppage to implore that his Eagles use better decision-making on their shots and work through the offense.

Problem solved.

Heeding its coach’s advice, Vinemont burst out of the break on a 7-0 roll, closed the third quarter on a 9-1 run and outscored Fairview 25-14 overall out of the timeout to clear its spot in the semifinals.

Tyler Tucker drilled a trey and had five points during the momentum-swinging surge, while Zack Drake came through with a pair of buckets to account for the other four.

The key to the stretch for Tucker, who hit four 3’s and scored a game-high 19 points, was the Eagles successfully avoiding their tendency to settle for one-pass shots. The switch was a sight for sore eyes for his coach.

“We scored on two or three straight trips of them doing what I asked,” Johnson said. “That sort of blew it back open.”

Added Drake, who chipped in 13 points: “We straightened up, got settled down. Started passing the ball, moving it more. It gave us open shots and they started falling.”

Trey Waldrep turned up the heat late and tossed in six fourth-quarter points to raise his total to 10. Vinemont teammate Trey Tucker punctuated his nine-point night with a slick reverse layup, and Lance Stanley got seven of his eight points out of the way in the first quarter.

Stanley led the Eagles with eight rebounds, five of which came on the offensive boards. Trey Tucker and Waldrep both snagged seven.

Yearwood, who anchored the spree that cut Fairview’s deficit to two, recorded 11 of his team-high 12 points in the second half and capped off a double-double with 13 rebounds. Austin Fletcher was hot on his heels with 11 points.

Other contributors for the Aggies were Austin Harris, eight points; Jackson Smith, seven; Dylan Smith and Kyle Knop, three apiece; and Caleb Chambers, two.

Vinemont’s reward for winning is a quick rematch with Class 2A No. 1 and top-seeded Cold Springs Friday at 6:15 p.m. Cold Springs, which eked out a 69-63 victory at Vinemont in late November, came back for a 67-56 win when the two met just last Thursday.

What that second score doesn’t reflect is is the 18-13 advantage Vinemont held after the first quarter. But games aren’t only eight minutes long. They’re 32, and Tyler Tucker is looking forward to the challenge of dishing out payback by giving his all for each of them.

So is Drake.

“I think we can run it for four quarters like that,” he said. “With this being our last county tournament for us seniors, we’re going to lay it on the line. We’re not going down without a fight.”

Johnson doesn’t expect anything less out of his upperclassmen. He also doesn’t expect Cold Springs to stand aside and let Vinemont simply seize its championship aspirations.

“I told them it’s a dream setup for those seniors to maybe knock off a No. 1 seed,” the coach said. “But Cold Springs sure isn’t going to give us anything. We’re going to have to take it.”