By ANTHONY STEVENS
Bluefield Daily Telegraph


BRISTOL, Va. — Two extremely athletic teams squared off in a thriller. Both teams battled hard from start to finish but it was the defending Alpha Natural Resources champion Honaker Tigers that came out on top.

Injured starter Tyler Hale achieved superstar status, scoring the last nine points for Honaker to give them an exciting 70-69 come-from-behind win to advance to the winner’s bracket semifinals tonight.

“I’ve always wanted to be in that situation,” said Hale. “Especially being out, I wanted the chance to get in the game and show everyone what I could do. I’ve wanted to do this all season.”

Hale missed Honaker’s first four games with an ankle injury that occurred just before the season began in a practice. He played a couple minutes on Monday against Holston and again only had a couple of minutes of action against Tazewell. But he was huge in the final 51 seconds.

With the Bulldogs leading 66-61, Hale hit a 3-pointer. Juwan Jordan answered for Tazewell (3-4).

Jordan scored inside and was fouled, converting the free throw to put them back up five points.

Hale then scored for the Tigers and was fouled. He missed the free throw but ended up with the rebound and scored on a driving layup to pull the Tigers within one, 69-68 with 21 seconds remaining.

Tazewell slowly brought the ball into frontcourt and it was Hale with a steal, he drove for a transition layup to put Honaker up 70-69 with eight seconds remaining. A desperation shot by Tanner Catron wouldn’t fall and the Tigers were the winners.

“My ankle still hurts a lot, it was really adrenaline that carried me through,” Hale said. “I knew we could comeback, but I knew it would take something special. Sometimes we struggle, but this team can be as good as anyone around if we plays well.”

Honaker (4-2) was 25-of-58 from the floor, making 43 percent of their shots. They struggled from the charity stripe making only 15-of-28 free throws, shooting 54 percent. But they were able to get the victory with the last minute heroics.

“This felt like March in the NCAA, survive and advance,” Honaker coach Marcus Dunham said. “We shouldn’t have been in that situation, if we make some free throws and we played some stupid basketball in the fourth quarter. Hat’s off to Tyler Hale, senior captain and he pulled us out of the fire.”

Hale had a total of 12 points. Randy Horton cleared the glass for the Tigers with 14 rebounds. Hunter Lester had 13 of his 20 points in the first half to help Honaker get a five-point lead at halftime. Casey Dye finished with 12 points and also had four assists.

“Lester was aggressive on both ends of the floor,” Dunham said. “He played great defense, looked for his shot and took the ball to the hole strong. He just needs to be consistent, I think he has really hit his stride this year.”

It was back-and-forth throughout the game. There were 11 lead changes and it was tied five times in the first half. Tazewell had their biggest lead of eight points early in the first quarter. The Bulldogs had five critical turnovers in the fourth quarter.

“This was a hard one to lose,” said Tazewell coach William Lester. “It was a good game. We had a good chance, we just have to learn how to closeout. I’m still proud of my boys and proud of their effort.”

Colin Hancock (16 points), Catron (13), Jordan (12), and Jesse Mountain (12) were in double digits for Tazewell.



HONAKER (70)

Ray 3 0-0 8, Dye 3 6-12 12, Coleman 2 2-2 6, Horton 4 0-3 8, Lester 7 5-6 20, Sample 1 1-2 3, Hale 5 0-1 12, Mullins 0 0-0 0, Smith 0 1-2 1. Totals 25 15-28 70.

TAZEWELL (69)

Davis 3 0-0 6, Catron 5 0-0 13, Hancock 6 0-0 16, Jordan 5 1-1 12, Hagy 4 1-1 9, Elkins 0 1-2 1, Sameniego 0 0-0 0, Mountain 5 2-3 12. Totals 28 5-7 69.

Honaker...................15 22 15 18 — 70

Tazewell...................14 18 22 15 — 69

3-point goals – Honaker 5 (Hale 2, Ray 2, Lester 1), Tazewell 8 (Catron 3, Hancock 4, Jordan 1). Total fouls – Honaker 11, Tazewell 19. Fouled out - none.