HOLLY POND — The first basketball meeting in awhile between Fairview and Cullman was definitely worth the wait.

Bryson Fletcher drove to the basket and banked in a layup at the buzzer to hand the Aggies a thrilling 60-58 victory in the opening game of the 60th annual Holly Pond Thanksgiving Tournament.

Cullman’s Reese Harbison made a free throw to tie it with 10 seconds to go but missed his other attempt, allowing Fairview to grab the rebound, go the floor and let Fletcher operate just the way he drew it up.

OK, maybe it wasn’t quite the way the junior imagined.

Not that he minded the end result.

“I was just planning on getting the ball screen,” Fletcher said. “But that didn’t work, so I just … I don’t know, it was just the moment. It was awesome. All the glory to God.”

Wednesday’s chippy instant classic featured 10 lead changes in the fourth quarter and 15 overall. The last left second-year Fairview coach Eddie Groves simultaneously ecstatic and aged beyond his years.

“I feel like I’m about 75,” he said. “Cullman is very good at what they do and they make the game difficult, they really do. They’re a really good team.

“We’re a relatively young team and we’re learning how to play solid for 32 minutes. If we do that, if we continue to get better, then I think we can compete with other really good teams. But if we don’t, you have to eliminate the reasons why you lose, and we did that tonight.”

Luke Yarbough led all scorers with 24 points, including eight in the final frame. Fletcher was next in line for the Aggies (3-4) with 10 points, followed by Tyler Ball (seven), Truman Boyd (five), Sam Elrod (five), Jacob Hill (four), Kennedy White (three) and Klay Knop (two).

Center Dylan Finch topped the Bearcats (3-3), who’d entered with three straight wins, with 22 points.

“Some guys really stepped up and made some big plays for us,” Groves said. “We got the job done defensively. They have a very good post man. He’s incredibly good and he was a big problem for us. He made us make adjustments, and then when we made adjustments, they hurt us with our adjustments.

“But we didn’t lose our heads. We kept cool under pressure. That’s what we’ve been talking about. We talk about being sound, solid and simple game in and game out. That’s who we are. We were tonight, and we beat a really good team.”

Neither team did itself any favors at the free-throw line. Cullman was 10 of 28 from the gimme distance, while Fairview was 14 of 24.

That wasn’t all coach Bobby Meyer thought the Aggies did better than his Bearcats.

“Fairview outplayed us, outhustled us, outdefended us,” he said. “They did a great job of executing their defense. Hats off to them. They played the best game and won.”

Cooper Beck nearly reached double figures with nine points for Cullman. Fletcher Jennings was close behind with eight. The Black and Gold’s other scorers were Trey Tucker (six points), Harbison (five), Jayden Sullins (three), Nick Williams (three) and Zane Manley (two).

“With a young team you’ve got to learn how to play at a high consistent level,” Meyer said. “We’d played three good games in a row, then came out out and played one below our standard, and a team who played well beat us.”

Fairview will look to stay perfect in tourney play Thursday at 6:30 p.m. against West Morgan. Cullman and Holly Pond will follow at 8 p.m.

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Holly Pond 89, Arab 70

The Broncos’ first wave built a big lead early and made it stick late to remain undefeated and cap off Day 1 with a convincing victory.

After trailing by as many as 17 in the third quarter, Arab clawed back within seven by the infant stages of the fourth before Drew Jones and Co. helped Holly Pond (4-0) pull away for good.

“We as a team needed this,” Bronco coach Mitch Morris said. “We needed to be challenged late in the game to see how we’re going to handle things, and I’m proud of our guys for stepping in and handling it against a really good Arab team.”

Jones had himself a night with 31 points. The Lee signee’s season high was bolstered by a quartet of treys and plenty of shots set up by friend and fellow senior Bailey Smith.

“He was feeling it,” Morris said of Jones. “He and Bailey have played together for so long, he really knows when Drew’s hot and he’ll set him up with his dribble penetration. Our other guys kind of feed off of that as well.”

Matt Cahoon had a couple of thunderous first-quarter dunks and finished with 12 points, the same total as Griffin Morris. Other Holly Pond contributors were Caleb Jones (eight points), Andrew Shaw (five), Jake Harris (five), Dawson Foust (five), Mckinley Garrett (four), Smith (four) and Zach Shaw (three).

“We had some really good spurts,” Morris said. “We just couldn’t maintain it for any length of time. We’ve been doing five in, five our. That second group is really good. Tonight, we created a few turnovers and missed some shots to let them get back in it, but hey, that’s part of the process. We’ve got great effort. I’m not arguing with effort at all.”

Joshua Marbut had 17 points for the Knights.

“I knew Arab wasn’t going to stop,” Morris said. “They’re too good of a team. They made it interesting. But the group I had in the fourth quarter, they were able to really make some plays, put some points up and get some stops like we needed.”