FLORETTE – Brewer grabbed a nine-point halftime lead against Hartselle in a Class 5A, Area 13 game Friday night before having to hold off a late Tigers’ rally to pick up a 55-51 victory.
The Patriots improved to 4-0 in area play with the win and hold a two-game advantage over the Tigers in the standings.
Hartselle has lost twice in area play – with both of those losses coming to Brewer.
Brewer is 14-4 overall with its second win over Hartselle this season.
“We just had one of those nights where we couldn’t put our opponent away,” said Brewer head coach Sam Brown. “We just couldn’t seem to put the game out of reach when we had the chance.”
Taylor Bowling was 7-of-10 from the free throw line and finished with 16 points to lead Brewer. Spenser Harvel and Jordan Bowling added 12 points each.
“I definitely don’t like to lose, but I thought our kids played probably their best game of the year,” said Hartselle head coach Keith Wright. “With eight seconds left in the game we had a 3-pointer to win the game but we just couldn’t get it. We got the shot we wanted and we had the open look. It just didn’t fall for us.”
Brewer trailed by three points heading into the second quarter before putting together a 20-9 run that put the Patriots in front 30-21 at the half.
Hartselle shot 29 percent from the floor in the first half, making just five of 17 shots to allow Brewer to push its lead to double figures on several occassions.
“We just got out of rythym in the second quarter,” Wright said. “We let Brewer get 20 points during the quarter, yet we still managed to keep them to just 55 points.
“We’ve been playing for just four and a half weeks, but we are getting better. We’ll continue to get better the more that we play and practice.”
Brown felt the Patriots let a solid opportunity slip away just before the half when they went up 30-16 and were unable to stretch the lead any further.
“We had a 14-point lead at one point in the second quarter and Hartselle was able to cut it to nine points. That was the crucial point in the game,” Brown said. “I thought if we could have taken advantage of that lead and stretched it to about 20 points before the half we could take Hartselle out of the game. We didn’t do that.”
Hartselle took the lead several times in the third quarter with a 19-9 run but could not hold off the Patriots.
Terry Wiggins and Chance Partlow led Hartselle with 12 points each, while Matt Johnston finished with 11 points.
Hartselle cut the Brewer lead to 52-51 late in the fourth quarter but Harvel hit three of four free throws in the final 22 seconds.
“Hartselle did a better job on the boards than we did,” Brown said. “We gave them a chance to get into the game when they were getting to the rebounds. They were limiting us to one shot a lot of the time.”
Brewer 57, Hartselle 45
Hannah Crawford scored a team-high 16 points and Riley Northway added 15 points and eight rebounds as the Lady Patriots beat Hartselle in an area game.
Courtney Oldacre chipped in 13 points for the Lady Patriots after making six of seven free throws.
Hartselle’s Kanesia Elliott led all scorers with 20 points. Quanesha Burk added 13 points with three 3-pointers.
Brewer opened up a 23-9 lead in the second quarter before Hartselle cut the deficit to nine points at the half. Hartselle got the deficit to seven in the third quarter but could get no closer.
The Lady Patriots improved to 13-6 overall, while Hartselle dropped to 3-10 with the loss.