HANCEVILLE — West Point’s varsity boys held off Holly Pond on Wednesday night to pick up a hard-fought 78-65 victory at the Cullman County Basketball Tournament and advance to the semifinals later this week.

Coach Randy Jones’ team moved to 12-13 with the win, while the Broncos fell to 6-15.

Holly Pond trailed throughout the first half and ultimately faced a 42-32 halftime deficit.

Kyler Chaney, however, spearheaded a comeback in the third quarter, and the Broncos eventually tied things up at 49 following a Jordan Allbright 3-pointer with 1:34 remaining in the frame.

The Warriors, though, turned up the defensive pressure shortly afterward, closing those final 90 seconds on a 13-2 run — the Maroon and White forced several turnovers during that stretch — to claim a 62-51 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Holly Pond kept battling, but it wasn’t enough to close the gap thanks to a superb effort from Will Cochran in crunch time.

He paced No. 2 West Point offensively with 26 points, including 16 in the second half.

Tyler White (15), Aubry Cleghorn (11), Kobe Bowers (nine) and Tyler Thompson (seven) provided the other top contributions on offense.

Chaney, meanwhile, totaled a game-high 30 points for the No. 7 Broncos.

Levi Boatright (12) and Jaxon Olinger (eight) put together solid outings as well.

The Warriors will face No. 3 Cold Springs on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

The Eagles defeated West Point 46-34 back in December.

Coach Speak: “They had a big 6-0 run before halftime. And they came out with the momentum. The big thing, if I’m being honest, was when Chaney went out right before the end of the third quarter. That’s when we made our run. With him in there, we can’t press them. We were able to get some turnovers, and that was huge going into the fourth quarter.” — Randy Jones

“Coach (Tim) Willoughby is the best defensive coach in the county. He does a great job. Cold Springs is good enough to win the whole tournament. We’re going to have our work cut out for us on Friday night. It’ll be a battle. It’ll go down to the wire.” — Randy Jones