Brady Wallace ended the home regular season schedule in style Thursday night, scoring 15 points to lead all scorers and helping the Hartselle Tigers defeat the Danville Hawks 59-29.

Wallace’s performance was very similar to his first game in the new Hartselle High School gymnasium nearly two months ago, leading his team to a blowout win over Brewer. Not only did Brady have a good shooting night, but his brother, Casen, followed right behind with nine points of his own.

“Either we’re both on or neither one of us is on,” Brady said. “We really feed off each other.”

“We know where each of us are on the floor at any time,” Casen said. “We know what the other one is going to do. It’s great that we get to play together.”

Brady hadn’t played varsity basketball until this year. Head coach Keith Wright is glad he decided to come out for his senior year.

“Brady just loves the game of basketball,” Wright said. “You can just see that in practice. He’s been a big part of the success that we’ve had this year.”

Another reason why Hartselle has played much better has been the addition of several junior varsity players, who just moved up after winning the Morgan County Championship. In fact, Hartselle now has six sophomores on its squad.

“Coach Greg Adams did an outstanding job of coaching them and preparing them this season,” Wright said. “Without the job he has done, they wouldn’t have made such an immediate impact on our team.

“They (the sophomores) gave us a lot of energy tonight. Basketball is a game of chemistry and we’re starting to play a lot better together.”

The game started sluggish on both sides, as Hartselle led 11-6 at the end of the first quarter. The Tigers took control in the second quarter as they went on two separate 6-0 runs to take a 30-17 lead at the half.

Hartselle put the game out of reach with a 22-4 third quarter, giving the Tigers a 52-21 advantage to force a running clock in the final stanza.

Tobias Mitchell and Zeth Malcolm had eight points each for Tigers followed by Lane Anders with six, Phillip Summerford with three and Kylar Topss and Jaxon Peebles with two each.

Patrick Doherty led Danville with 10 followed by Alan Cordova with six.

The night was also the final home regular season game for Summerford. Wright said he’s had a fun time coaching Summerford, especially enjoying one trip to Disney World and two trips to Gatlinburg, Tenn.

“Phillip is just like a son to me,” Wright said. “It seems like we’ve been through just about everything together. Some of it has been good – some of it not so good. I’m going to miss him.”

Brady Wallace doesn’t want Thursday’s game to be his last home game, but that will take winning the area tournament, which begins next Friday at No. 1 seed East Limestone next Friday.

“We’re about to begin a new season,” Brady said. “Coach said it doesn’t matter what we’ve done so far. All that matters is what we do from now on.

“Hopefully, this win will help us get better and prepare for the area tournament next week.”