It was all going their way and all that was left was to wait for the buzzer, but the Highland Park Hornets had another plan in mind in the championship game of the annual Greenbelt Classic Tournament.
The Hornets edged out the Broncos by four points at 58-54 Saturday night at the Bronco Gymnasium.
The Broncos cleared the way in the first three quarters of play for the eventual victory, but gave way to the Hornets in the fourth quarter. Turnovers plagued the home team and Highland Park capitalized heavily on them to take over the lead with just seconds left in the game. The Hornets scored 25 points to only 11 for the Broncos to get the win.
“I didn’t think we played our very best,” coach Clint Coley said. “We know we can play better. It was our second tournament in a row with only a couple of days in between, and maybe it would be a good time for a break. I thought Highland Park played well to get the win. We played several close games in the tournament, and we found a way to win, but we came up short in the end.”
Scoring: Johnny Gaines 13, Danzel Wilson 12, Stephino McCampbell 7, Jadon Thornton 6, Alton Gaines 4, Derrick Shelton 4, Tré Brown 4, Jesus Hernandez 2, and Aaron Gordon 2.
Earlier in the tournament, the Broncos easily got by River Road 53-45 in the first round, but they had a little more trouble with White Deer in the second round. The Bucks were persistent in the fight, but the Broncos outplayed and outlasted them and won by two at 46-44.
The Broncos came from behind in the River Road game in the first half to take over the lead in the third quarter. A big-scoring final period helped the Broncos seal the win over the Wildcats.
Scoring: White Deer: A. Gaines 16, J. Gaines 14, Shelton 5, Wilson 4, Brown 3, Gordon 2, and McCampbell 2. River Road: A. Gaines 15, Wilson 12, J. Gaines 10, Shelton 5, Brown 4, McCampbell 4, Hernandez 2, and Thornton 1.
The Broncos will participate in the Caprock Tournament in Lubbock December 29-31. According to Coley, this tournament has been around better than 50 years.
“This is a really good tournament,” Coley said. “It is sponsored by AmBucks and all the proceeds go to special needs children for any equipment they might need. There will be 32 boys and 32 girls teams in the tourney. It will give us a chance to play bigger schools, which we have really been doing all season.
“We will play Friona in the first round; and if we win, we will play Midland Greenwood, which is a 3A school, in the second round,” Coley said. “We are playing good competition and bigger schools, and we know that will help us in the end.”
The Broncos will travel to Childress December 19 in their last regular season game before the break. Tip-off will be at 7:30 p.m.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.