COUNTY TOURNAMENT (VARSITY BOYS): Hanceville secures hard-fought, 57-50 win over Holly Pond
Published 7:32 pm Friday, January 27, 2023
- Holly Pond's Gunnar McBee makes a pass.
HANCEVILLE — Hanceville’s varsity boys outlasted Holly Pond in a physical semifinal matchup Friday night, notching a 57-50 win at Wallace State’s Tom Drake Coliseum to advance to the championship game of the Cullman County Basketball Tournament.
Neither team constructed a lead of more than five points in the first half, with the second-seeded Broncos (21-5) taking a 30-27 advantage heading into intermission.
That nip and tuck action continued throughout the third quarter as the contest was tied at 41 heading into the final period.
With 32 seconds remaining, a Zach Campbell free throw gave the No. 3 Bulldogs (20-6) a 51-48 advantage.
Will Calvert then came up with a big-time steal for Hanceville and drew a foul on the other end. The personal foul was followed by a technical foul on the Class 2A No. 1 Broncos, which allowed the Purple and Gold to — when all was said and done — push their lead to 55-48 with 13.9 seconds left.
From there, it was simply a matter of running out the clock.
Top Scorers
Hanceville: Brayden Harris (14), Will Calvert (13), Zach Campbell (13)
Holly Pond: Kollin Brown (16), Christian Couch (13)
Coach Speak
“We talked about it at halftime. We’ve been in games like this, and the ones we’ve lost we’ve allowed a run to happen. So we were focused on keeping them from going on a run and letting the offense come to us. A lot of second-group guys gave rest to our starters, and we got that push late.” — Stephen Chandler
“We know Good Hope is going to be tough, but we’ve got to stick to us. We’ve got to work and get ourselves in a situation to get the win.” — Stephen Chandler
Player Speak
“We knew we were going to get their best shot. First quarter was tight, second quarter was tight, third quarter was still tight. It stayed close the whole game. We had been preparing for them knowing they were going to play like us. Our coach preaches defense, and we wanted to execute that. We wanted to compete and didn’t want to lose to them three times in a row.” — Zach Campbell
