Sparta
The White County Warriors tipped off against the Cannon County for Lions for the final boys' game of the Frank’s Christmas Shootout. The game had all the drama you would expect from a championship game, coming down to the final four seconds before the Warriors secured the 56-53 win.
The Lions took the tip, missed their shot, rebounded and then got called for a double dribble. White County drove the court before Cole Sims was fouled. Sims went one-for-two at the line to put the first point of the game on the board. The Warriors turned the pressure up intercepting passes and disrupting dribbles throughout the first quarter. However, there seemed to be a lid on the basket as both teams struggled to get the ball to fall through the net, and, at the end of one, the score was just 11-8 in favor of White County.
It took close to two minutes after the start of the second quarter for the score to change. After a lot of steals, missed offensive rebounds, and fouls by both teams, it was Cannon County who found the bucket to get the scoring going again. After two buckets by the Lions, Tucker Pinion finally found the bottom of the net for the Warriors. He added a foul shot to even the score back up as the clock neared the midway point of the period. The teams traded baskets and fouls for the rest of the quarter and headed to the locker room with White County facing their first halftime deficit of the tournament, down 26-28.
A minute and a half into the second half, the Lions extended their lead to four as White County’s deep shots weren’t falling and the Warriors continued to be out of position to compete for the ball off the boards. But there was still a lot of basketball to be played, and White County increased the pressure on defense, settled down on offense, and turned the tables on the Lions. By the midpoint of quarter number three, the scoreboard was 35-32 in favor of the Warriors.
There was plenty of drama, a slew of fouls, and a few points scored in the remaining four minutes of the third quarter. The result was a tied game heading into the final eight minutes of play.
Pinion broke the tie as he sank the ball from behind the three-point arc to open the fourth quarter scoring. The Lions responded with a basket of the two-point variety, but Pinion answered with another nothing-but-net three pointer to put the Warriors up by four.
It was a battle to the buzzer. White County’s lead was cut to one with just over a minute left in the game. Sims sank a pair of foul shots to give the Warriors a cushion, but the Lions quickly followed suit to bring it back to a one point lead. The Lions turned the pressure up on the Warriors, but their full court press resulted in Sims heading back to the foul line with 41 seconds on the clock and then again at the 22 second mark. Sims went four-for-four over those two trips to give White County the cushion they would need. The Warriors would get the win and be crowned the 4th Annual Frank’s Christmas Tournament Champions.
White County scoring: Cole Sims - 29, Tucker Pinion - 23, Mason Steele - 3, Lukas Smith - 1.
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