Carbon Hill’s Daniel Woodard (23) looks to go around Dora’s Deionte Smith during the championship game of the Walker County Basketball Tournament at Parrish High School on Saturday. Carbon Hill won 72-56. Woodard led Carbon Hill with 17 points on the night. Photo by: Johnathan Bentley
Carbon Hill’s effort included three players scoring in double digits, as well as posting 39 rebounds to Dora’s 21.
The team also boasts tournament MVP Tylor Owens — whose 15 points, seven rebound and nine assists effort helped Carbon Hill hold of several Dora rallies in the second half of the game to ultimately clinch the title-winning victory.
“We defeated a very good Dora team for our championship — they have an excellent group of players who are well-coached,” Carbon Hill coach Robert Epps said. “I was really proud of our kids tonight — when the game first started, Dora came out hit us hard and we were able to recover. We then regrouped and played strong for the remainder of the night. Our team truly gave a great effort.”
The two teams battled fiercely in the first period, with Carbon Hill taking a 14-12 scoring edge.
Dora took a 20-16 lead after a Robert Johnson basket at the 5:30 mark of the second quarter.
From there, Carbon Hill went on a torrid 16-2 run to close the half. Jake Davis had six points in the surge. Tylor Owens had a three steals and seven points in the run as Carbon Hill took a 32-22 lead into the half. Dora didn’t get closer than seven points for the rest of the game.
Carbon Hill led by as many as 18 points in the third quarter, but Dora battled back, outscoring Carbon Hill 22-20 in the period to cut the lead to 52-44 going into the fourth quarter.
A Dionte Smith basket cut the gap to 56-49 in the fourth quarter, but Carbon Hill pulled away down the stretch en route to a 20-12 scoring edge to reach the 72-56 final.
Daniel Woodard had a great night for Carbon Hill, scoring 17 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Davis also turned in an impressive performance with 15 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots.
Deionte Smith turned in a 13-point, six-rebound night for Dora to lead the team in scoring. Zachary Pate contributed with 10 points.
THIRD-PLACE GAME
Parrish 79, Cordova 50
The Parrish Tornadoes locked up a third-place tournament finish with a 79-50 win over the Cordova Blue Devils on Saturday afternoon.
Four Parrish players scored in double digits while winning the rebounding duel with the Blue Devils 43-29.
“We executed very well in the game — which was very important after the disappointing performance in our game with Dora,” Parrish coach Heath Burns said.
“I think the ability to for us to come back today and gather the focus that we need to unlock our potential is pivotal to our future success. It was a great effort.”
Parrish, which lost to Dora 61-38 in their tournament game Friday, took command in the first period with a 25-15 lead before stretching its lead to 19 to take a 45-26 edge into the half.
The Tornadoes continued to dominate both sides of the ball en route to a 18-11 third-period effort to lead 63-37, then would out-duel the Blue Devils 16-13 in the fourth period to secure the 79-50 victory.
FIFTH-PLACE GAME
Oakman 58, Curry 56
Quinton Harris and Elijah Farley each had 13 points to lead Oakman past Curry 58-56 in the fifth-place game on Saturday morning.
In what turned out to be the closest game of the tournament, Oakman outscored the Yellow Jackets by two in the fourth quarter to hand Curry its second upset loss of the week.
The Wildcats entered the tournament as the lowest seed, but stuck with fourth-seeded Curry the entire game. Oakman jumped out to an 18-12 lead after the first quarter and the Wildcats led 36-33 at the half.
Curry notched the game at 46-46 going into the final quarter.
Six different Oakman players knocked down 3-pointers in the game with Farley connecting on 3-of-5. Eight of Oakman’s nine players scored points in the game.
Both John Coger and Dylan Smith had nine points for the Wildcats.
For Curry, which finished 0-3 in the tournament after losses to Cordova, Carbon Hill and Oakman, Dylan Whitt had 14 points, Wesley Key added 11 and Spencer Fikes had eight.
JV CHAMPIONSHIP
Dora 40, Carbon Hill 22
The Dora Bulldogs’ junior varsity team won the Walker County Tournament championship on Saturday with a 40-22 win over the Carbon Hill Bulldogs at Parrish.
Dora pulled out in front 15-6 in the first period, followed by a 7-4 second period scoring effort to remain in command 22-10 at halftime.
Dora outscored Carbon Hill 10-7 in the third period to lead 32-17 before totaling an 8-5 scoring edge in the fourth period to post the 40-22 title-winning victory.