Holly Pond's Taylor Tankersley dials in on a 3-point attempt during Thursday's area tournament championship victory against Susan Moore. 

HOLLY POND — The road to Wallace State will once again run through Felton Easterwood Gymnasium.

Holly Pond’s varsity boys used a superb third-quarter push to overtake Hanceville in Thursday’s Class 3A, Area 10 Tournament championship, outlasting their county rival for a 78-72 victory to clinch their sixth consecutive area tournament title.

Drew Jones (27) and Griffin Morris (23) combined for 50 points to help the 3A No. 9 Broncos (22-6) come out on top.

“The third quarter … huge,” Green and White coach Mitch Morris said. “We couldn’t stop them on defense in the first half. At halftime, though, we got ’em fired up, and they played outstanding. Our defense stepped up, we forced turnovers, we made shots and we got ourselves some breathing room.”

Hanceville jumped out to a 7-0 lead and held a 36-27 advantage late in the first half thanks to some exemplary play from Xavier Malcom and R.J. Evans, whom combined for 19 of the Purple and Gold’s 22 points in the second frame.

Griffin Morris wasn’t about to be outdone, however, as the Holly Pond sophomore made several nice shots to keep his team within striking distance before teammates pitched in to cut the halftime deficit to just one point.

“We just wanted to play our hearts out,” he said. “We wanted our last game here to be on Tuesday, not tonight. We wanted to be the aggressors coming

out in the second half. That’s our game and our style. That’s what we changed.”

Whatever Morris and Co. dialed up in the locker room certainly paid off in grand fashion.

The Broncos outpaced Hanceville 26-10 in the third stanza — receiving contributions from seven different players — and simply outplayed their area foe during the decisive stretch that turned a close game into a 15-point lead entering the fourth quarter.

Daniel Wakefield’s Dawgs didn’t fold, though, nabbing 26 points of their own in the final frame and eventually cutting the home team’s cushion to just six.

In the end, however, the Green and White made their free throws and Hanceville missed just a few too many shots.

Wakefield traced the unfavorable outcome back to the third frame.

“You have got to play four quarters to beat Holly Pond,” the longtime coach said. “We only played three. They dominated us in that one. The energy level those guys showed during that stretch was the difference in the game. I’m not saying we didn’t have it … it just took us time to match theirs. By then, we’d already lost our lead and gotten down by double digits.”

Matt Cahoon and Caleb Jones tossed in eight and seven points, respectively, for the Broncos, who will host either second-ranked Madison Academy or West Morgan on Tuesday in a sub-regional matchup. Morris’ group defeated the latter 80-72 in overtime earlier this season. The Rebels, however, ended Holly Pond’s run last season in the sub-regional round.

“We just needed to control what we could,” Mitch Morris said. “We did that job tonight. Either team we face will be tough. We’ll prepare the best we can.”

Added Griffin Morris: “It’s just a blessing to be a part of all this. We’ve been working for this chance. I know we’ll be hungry.

Hanceville (19-11) will travel to the Madison Academy-West Morgan winner for their postseason contest on Tuesday.

Malcom (28 points), Jose Orozco (17), Isaac Weissend (13) and Evans (11) were the top contributors for the Bulldogs.

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Varsity Girls

Holly Pond 67, Susan Moore 50

The Lady Broncos completed a clean area sweep and picked up their eighth straight area tournament title with a strong showing against the Bulldogs.

Melissa Clingman (20), Ruth Horton (14), Molly Gambrill (12), Taylor Tankersley (nine) and Haley Higginbotham (nine) rounded out the scoring for the 3A No. 9 Green and White, who improved to 20-10 on the season.

Holly Pond controlled the matchup comfortably until late in the fourth stanza, when Susan Moore went on a 13-3 run to cut its deficit down to seven points with less than four minutes remaining.

Clingman, however, made 11 of 13 free throw attempts down the stretch to keep the Broncos firmly in the driver’s seat.

“We took care of it in the end,” coach Scott Adams said. “I loved the energy level that we played with tonight. Susan Moore really played hard. We missed several open shots in the second half that would have let us build a big lead, but I’m very pleased with how we closed it out.”

The victory also gave the Green and White program their eighth consecutive 20-win season.

Something to be cherished for sure.

“It’s amazing,” Tankersley said. “We did it for coach Adams and everything he does for us. It’s just great to be a part of something like that.”

Holly Pond will host 3A No. 1 Madison Academy in a sub-regional rematch from a season ago. The Mustangs were defeated 51-48 by No. 2 Lauderdale County in their area tournament finale.

Adams maintained his sense of humor despite the tall mountain his squad must climb in order to reach the Northwest Regional Tournament.

“Piece of cake, right?” he said with a laugh. “I don’t prefer them. Maybe they’ll send a substitute. We’ll prepare the best we can for them.”

Added Tankersley: “We have nothing to lose. We’ve got our 20 wins and our area tournament title. If it doesn’t go the way we want it to, we’ll definitely be going out playing the very best we can and giving it everything we have.”