HANCEVILLE — Three games. Twelve quarters. Four overtimes.

And one Cullman County Basketball Tournament championship.

Exactly how Hanceville’s varsity boys drew it up.

The second-seeded Bulldogs might’ve entered the extended week — and the title tilt — as underdogs, but they exited as the undisputed No. 1 after conquering Cold Springs 55-49 in an electric final Wednesday night at Wallace State’s Tom Drake Coliseum.

The age of Hanceville superstar Xavier Malcom the last time the program lifted the winner’s trophy in 1998?

Not even 1.

The realization made Malcom’s ailing ankle from a late scare a mere afterthought.

“That’s when I was born,” said the smiling senior, who piled on 25 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals. “We knew we could do it. It’s real sweet. It’s like everything I’ve worked for paid off in the county. I feel good.”

Malcom didn’t feel so hot with just more than two minutes to go when he landed awkwardly on his right ankle while trying to avoid a ball aimed at his other foot by Triston Chambers on the baseline. Neither did Hanceville even earlier in the fourth, when Chambers scored the first two points and Josh Freeman the next four of a 6-0 run — including an inside shot made possible by a missed Chambers free throw that stuck between the rim and backboard and went to Cold Springs as a jump ball — transforming the Eagles’ 45-41 deficit into a slim, but definitely momentum-swinging, 47-45 advantage.

Freeman streaked down the court in full celebration mode after taking a long pass from Chambers and laying it up to put Cold Springs ahead.

But Malcom had the perfect answer, capping off the Dawgs’ ensuing possession with a 3 in the corner and playfully holstering his guns before heading to the bench for a timeout.

The Purple and Gold (17-7), which improved to 2-1 this season against their county rival, never trailed again.

“Tip your hat to them,” Cold Springs coach Tim Willoughby said. “When they had to have a play, they made the play.”

Hanceville did indeed need a few more plays down the stretch and, as Willoughby indicated, it got them every time. None was bigger than Malcom’s perfect trip at the free throw line with 30 seconds left that extended the Bulldogs’ lead to 54-49 after Eli Hamby had cut the Eagles’ gap to a single score.

The sequence allowed Daniel Wakefield to breathe a whole lot easier than when Malcom had initially been injured.

“We were up three with about a minute and a half,” the Hanceville coach said. “The win’s right there in front of us, you see ‘X’ hobbling off the court and you think maybe it’s just not meant to be.

“I know I’ve got Brendan, I know some guys came in and played big for us, but obviously you want your best player on the court in a championship game. So when we were having to sub defense for offense to get him on the court and hit those free throws at the end, obviously that was big. Because you had a feeling if you got him to the line, he was going to knock ’em down.”

And knock ’em down Malcom did — much to the delight of teammate R.J. Evans, who picked up nine quick points in the first four minutes of the third quarter and rounded out an 11-point performance with two clutch free throws late in the final frame.

“He’s excellent,” said the up-and-coming freshman while flashing a childish grin and mouth full of braces. “I want to be just as good as him when I get older.”

Jose Orozco was responsible for seven points in the victory, J.K. Davis drilled a pair of 3-pointers, Isaac Weissend chipped in four points — including the game’s last — and Luke Duffie rattled in an early basket.

Malcom, who was 10 of 11 from the charity stripe, joined Weissend on the All-Tournament and All-County teams and was a deserving pick for the Eli Thomas Memorial Scholarship. The point guard’s selection for the annual award was Hanceville’s third in the last five years.

Soaking in the championship scene before climbing the ladder to cut his piece of the net, Wakefield divulged a comical confession he swore up and down was the “honest to God truth.”

“It’s the first championship game of a Cullman County Tournament I’ve ever been to,” said Hanceville’s head coach since 2005. “We’ve never made it to the championship game, so I’ve never bothered to show up. This is the first one I’ve ever been to, and we were lucky and fortunate to win one tonight.”

Well, maybe lucky wasn’t quite the right word. Aside from Brendan Flanigan’s buzzer-beating, 3-point prayer to end a four-overtime semifinal thriller, of course.

“We beat two really good teams in two really tight games,” Wakefield said. “So if you say we earned it because of who we beat — West Point and Cold Springs — I would agree with you.”

Wakefield’s first two seasons on campus were spent as an assistant to none other than Willoughby. Think the master taught the student a little too well?

“Maybe,” said Wakefield with a laugh. “He’s a wizard. He knows a lot about it.”

Willoughby, as expected, was equally as gracious in defeat.

“You just have to congratulate coach Wakefield and Hanceville’s players,” he said. “I thought they played a great game. They were very patient offensively and stretched our defense.

“It didn’t go our way, but I think our players played with great effort. I know our players are disappointed, though. We have to come back from this and finish our season.”

Chambers and Freeman topped fourth-seeded and Class 2A No. 3 Cold Springs (18-7) with 19 points apiece. Freeman completed a double-double with 13 rebounds, including seven of the offensive variety.

Hamby added five points for the Eagles, and Tyler Rice and Cayde Elliott each claimed a 3-pointer.

Chambers was accompanied on the All-Tournament and All-County teams by Freeman and was the obvious choice for this year’s Joe Shults Award. The Samford signee is the first Cold Springs boy to snag the honor for the county’s most outstanding varsity player since Chayse Elliott in 2013.

“He does a lot with kids in our community. He really tries to give back,” Willoughby said of Chambers. “We are all proud and happy for Triston. He’s very deserving. A lot of great players have won that in the past, so Triston will fit right in.”

West Point’s Tanner Rusk and Seth Parker were the remaining members of the All-Tournament Team, which was plucked exclusively by Johnny Thornton.

Rusk and West Point teammate Kobe Smith, Holly Pond’s Drew Jones, Matt Cahoon and Bailey Smith, Fairview’s Austin Fletcher, Good Hope’s Matt Cofer and Vinemont’s Hunter Cleghorn were the others not previously mentioned to grace the All-County Team.