CLASS 5A AREA 4 SEMIS: Brew Tech gets late gift to beat Valley; Tallassee holds off Beauregard
Brew Tech guard Evan Carter hit the game-winning free throw to lift the Rams past Valley in the Class 5A Area 4 tournament in Tallassee on Tuesday. (Staff Photo)
By GRAHAM DUNN
TALLASSEE - Brewbaker Tech first-year coach LaKendric Larkin didn’t expect to have a freshman playing a key role in his first game up from the junior varsity.
Larkin also wasn’t expecting a free throw in the final second to ice a win over Valley in the Class 5A Area 4 tournament in Tallassee on Thursday.
He got both.
“This game was a lot like the last time we played,” said Larkin, who replaced longtime Brew Tech coach Chauncey Shines this season. “They battled us the second time, neck and neck the whole time. We didn’t expect it to be easy.”
After trailing for much of the second half, the Rams took the lead in the opening minute of the final quarter but needed some good fortune to earn a 51-50 win over Valley to advance to the area tournament final.
“We expected to win,” Justin Johnson. “We stayed calm throughout the game and did what we needed to do.”
The Rams (18-9) had built a six-point lead in the final minute of the game only to see Valley (9-15) tie it with seconds remaining on a 3 pointer by Jamarious Martin and an immediate steal and lay in by Jacquez Trammell with just seven seconds left in the game.
Apparently, following the in-bounds pass by Brew Tech, Martin lost track of the score and fouled Evan Carter in back court to stop the clock with 1.2 seconds left in the game.
Carter missed the front end of the two free throws but made the second to seal the win.
“We work on hitting clutch free throws every day after practice,” Larkin said. “We turn off all the music to make sure we are able to concentrate.”
After leading by as much as five points, the Rams (18-9) trailed for much of the second quarter thanks in part to the work of Valley’s Trammell, who scored eight first-half points.
Larkin called on freshman Xavier Sutton, a smallish but bulky guard to lean on Trammell in the second half.
Sutton did enough to keep Trammell in check. Trammell scored eight points in the second half but Sutton had done enough for his coach.
“We told him he had one job – guard (Trammell),” Larkin said. “He broke his pinky finger (several weeks ago) and only played in the last four or five JV games so he is just getting back. But he did just what we needed.”
“We knew he could come in and do the job,” Johnson added. “We’ve seen what he can do in practice. He’s a good player and really did a good job on their big man.”
Johnson led the way with 19 points while Carter finished with 11 points. Que Williams added 10 points for the Rams, who face Tallassee on Thursday.
Tallassee 57, Beauregard 46
TALLASSEE - The Tigers held as much as a 20-point lead in the first half but had to hold off a couple of late rallies to advance to the Class 5A Area 4 final on Tuesday in the Stumberg Gym.
The Tigers jumped to a double-digit lead early and held the Hornets without a field goal for much of the second quarter building a 32-12 lead with just over two minutes remaining in the first half.
Jamicah Humphrey and the Tallassee Tigers advanced to the Class 5A Area 4 tourney final with a win over Beauregard on Tuesday. (Staff Photo)
But Beauregard (11-14) cut the lead to 11 on a 3-point shot by Cory Askew as the buzzer sound to end the half.
The Tigers played keep away for most of the second half but allowed Beauregard to pull within seven points on a couple of occasions before slowly building the lead back to double digits in the final minutes. The Tigers held Beauregard to just five points in the final two minutes.
Despite the win, coach Keiven Mixon was not satisfied, pointing to poor shot selection and free throw shooting in the second half where Tallassee was just 13 of 26 at the charity stripe.
“We have nights where we can shoot 70 percent but we are not particularly a good free throw shooting team,” Mixon said. “I was very disappointed in how we played after getting the big lead. We started settling for 3 pointers and not taking care of the ball – not running the plays we set up. We’ve got to do a better job overall.”
Jayln Daniels finished with 17 points to lead Tallassee (24-5) while Tyrek Turned added 15 points.
Tallassee and Brewbaker Tech will meet Thursday at 6:30 p.m. for the tournament title.